Unclothed

by Probir Sengupta

  ‘I’m going to bring Gold Spot for everybody. My daddy will arrange that,’ Hitendra bragged in front of the children.

  Heena was also listening. And Onni did not like this.

  ‘Wait for the batata vadas that I will bring... They will be really nice. You all will ask for more,’ he said trying to score a point.

  ‘Batata vadas? Rubbish!’ Baba said to Onni at home. You should carry some good sweets... Everyone will enjoy them.’

  ‘But Geeta teacher already told what everyone should get for the party. I have to bring batata vadas. How can it change now?’

  ‘Tell your teacher that Baba said batata vadas are bad for health. She should see that you children eat healthy.’

  Onni knew he could not argue. He just remained quiet.

  ‘Can I get besan-ke-laddoo, teacher?’ Onni asked the next day in class.

  Geeta teacher had met Mr. Ray during one of the open-days in school. She figured out exactly what he must have said to his son. There were too many things to bother about and the little boy bringing batata vadas or besan-ke-laddoo didn’t really matter.

  ‘Okay,’ she said to Onni.

  ‘Will you bring batata vadas for everyone, Hitesh?’

  Hitesh agreed. Onni knew that Hitesh’s daddy was not the type to change plans.

  On the day of the party, the whole school wore a different look. Gone were the plain white and grey uniforms. Everyone was clad in different colours. Even the teachers looked less threatening on that day. The students wished that every day was Christmas Party, without homework and projects and notebooks and pencils and erasers to bother about.

  The class black board was covered with drawings of ribbons and balloons. There was confetti lying everywhere. ‘God knows how Vasant and the other peons will clean up all of this. We should all help them,’ the School Captain came around instructing everyone, and trying to score brownie points.

  ‘Children, stand up and wish the Principal!’ Geeta teacher screamed. The Principal of the school walked in with a saintly smile cast on his face. Geeta teacher tried to match it and offered him a seat. But he had many classrooms to visit and quickly left.

  Everyone’s paper plates were piled with things to eat. Lata teacher appeared dressed as Santa, and there were loud screams for the gifts. All the children got rubber balls with crazy stripes in thousands of colours. The classroom was filled with bouncing balls and children squealing and running after them.

  The party ended. The entire school now busied itself in packing up and leaving for the Christmas vacations.

  ‘Onni, come, let’s go!’ somebody’s voice trailed from afar.

  Onni stared silently at the floor. The besan-ke-laddoo he had got for the entire class were rolling untouched all over the classroom floor, amidst the empty paper plates.

  No one had eaten them.

  Twenty-three

  Onni was looking at the floor as he walked. It was polished to a shine and his reflection stood inverted under him.

  ‘Women wearing skirts should surely stay away from this floor,’ he contemplated. ‘But it’d be fun to watch,’ he imagined the effect with a rascally smile. ‘Yes, I’m guilty. You caught me!’ his eyes seemed to say.

  His dull blue suede slip-ons led up to white jeans. An expensive, well-fitted indigo sports jacket rested on the broad shoulders of this twenty-three year-old, all thanks to Swati. She always took very close interest in Onni. He was one of the talents she loved to flaunt. She knew it was not about the clothes. It was a business where the clothes had to come off finally. It was the attitude. And this young man had oodles of it. He was refreshingly candid and chivalrous too. She was just packaging and marketing him to an audience that was always clamouring for more.

  ‘You have to wait for her at the Neptune Bar, at 9:00 PM tonight,’ Swati had instructed Onni over the phone. ‘She will recognise you; I’ve shown her your photograph and told her what you will be wearing. And just between you and me, she likes to experiment,’ Swati had added with a chuckle.

  ‘Aye, aye, Sir!’ Onni had said as he hung up.

  He looked around the watering-hole and zoomed in on where he would stand to be picked up. Just as he was getting there, he heard a lady’s husky voice from behind him. ‘What time is it, young man?’

  Onni turned and his eyes met a forced pout and a set of dark kohl-lined eyes. ‘I’m guessing it is 9:00 PM,’ he answered with a charming smile, without looking at his watch.

  ‘Hello, I’m Deepjoy,’ he continued. A select set knew him by that name, only the ones who could afford it.

  ‘I’m Ashwini,’ the lady introduced herself. ‘So, what do you do?’

  ‘You know already. Plus, whatever you want me to,’ Onni was warming up and shifting to third gear.

  ‘No, as in what do you do at daytime? You know what I mean,’ the lady prodded. Onni guessed that she must have been in her forties.

  ‘Her kids must be doing their homework and her husband must still be in office, with his secretary,’ the young man thought to himself.

  ‘I’m available in the daytime too,’ he replied. This easy money was making Onni comfortable with all kinds of people, at all hours.

  As he escorted the lady through the lobby, his eyes fell on somebody who was looking at him.

  ‘Why is he checking me out that way? Does he too want me in his room now?’

  The young man was about the same age as Onni and well-suited. He was speaking to the staff of the hotel. He looked at Onni and turned away. And immediately he turned back again and stared.

  Onni was used to both women and men gazing at him. He didn’t really care. Ashwini and he disappeared into a room at the end of the corridor.

  The door shut and remained locked for a little over two hours.

  When the door opened, Deepjoy’s work was done. He was ready to become Onni again.

  ‘I’m like that superhero who is a business tycoon by day and a crime-cleaner by night. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to say where one ends and the other begins. Guess I should have two visiting cards with Onniruddh Ray on one and Deepjoy on the other.’

  ‘Onni?’ a man’s voice called out.

  The young man’s steps froze. ‘Who knows me as Onni here?’ was the first thought that came to Onni’s head as he turned. It was the young man who had been staring at him earlier. He was taken aback.

  ‘Yes, that’s me. But do I know you?’

  ‘Hey, I’m Hitendra. We were in school together... Remember?’

  Onni’s mind raced years back. He remembered taking out Hitendra’s notebook from a pile of books. Onni recollected how he had scribbled in it... Onni is King. Heena is Queen. Hitendra is Servant. ‘Thank God, that book was never found,’ Onni thought and smiled in gratitude.

  ‘Of course! How can I forget the boy who was always ranked First and made me Second?’

  Onni hugged Hitendra. Here was somebody who had sat in the classroom with him, listening to fifty-eight year-old teachers of English, Hindi, History and Geography. The two young men started talking about their lives and exchanging numbers.

  ‘What are you doing now? You look like you’re making good money,’ Hitendra winked at Onni.

  ‘I sell chocolates, mobile connections, nappies, washing powders, bottles of soft drinks, hotel suites and sometimes cars,’ answered Onni with a chuckle.

  Hitendra looked at him zapped.

  ‘Ha ha... I write ads. I’m into advertising,’ Onni said with a smile. ‘This watch that you are wearing, some copywriter like me lied and made you buy it!’

  There was another way that Onni was making money, of course, but speaking about it was not permitted.

  ‘It must be fun,’ Hitendra said. ‘I’m here, at this hotel, managing the business here. I studied Hotel Management... The only goo
d part is that I get to meet some interesting people. I just saw you with a lady... From your agency?’

  ‘Just a client... She was here to debrief me,’ Onni said. Only he knew that it was true in the literal sense.

  ‘Did it happen?’ he asked with a grin. ‘And, are you free now?’

  ‘Why? You got a plan?’

  ‘My girlfriend’s coming to fetch me. The three of us can get some drinks together.’

  ‘Ummm... I don’t want to get in the way.’

  ‘You are coming, Onni!’ Hitendra thumped him on his shoulder.

  ‘Cool, if you say so.’

  The pumping music at the disco where they went was quite infectious. Onni was unconsciously moving to the sound. Suddenly the door opened and they saw a lady walk in. Hitendra stretched his hand up immediately and waved out. ‘That’s her!’ he announced.

  Onni knew her. It was Noor.

  Suddenly, he wanted to get away from the blasting noise.

  Ten

  Onn i just wanted to be away from the noise that day. So he decided to walk home.

  Silently he put his textbooks and notebooks into his school bag. The pen and pencil went into the compass box. The compass box went into the space between the various books.

  ‘Baanu teacher was so funny today!’ Onni giggled to himself. The compass box reminded him of something that had happened during the day at school.

  The Geography teacher was angry because a student did not know an answer. And she had screamed! ‘You don’t know the answer? What is your name?’

  ‘Pompa Bose...’ was the meek answer.

  ‘Compass box?’ Baanu teacher was livid. ‘You are making fun of me?’

  ‘No, teacher, my name is Pompa Bose.’

  The answer made the whole class titter in amusement. Baanu teacher of course continued with her lesson about plateaus and mountains.

  The compass box slid into Onni’s bag. Everything in there was neatly arranged. Even at the end of the school day. That was how Onni liked it.

  With his big bag hanging behind him, he walked out of the school building. ‘Onni, come fast!’ a friend screamed from his school bus. He waved out. ‘I’m walking home today!’ he shouted back.

  The road to Didima’s house was short. But he decided to take a detour. There were many things to see on the way. He liked it because it was a silent road that did not have cars and buses honking away.

  Onni walked on the footpath. The damp wall on one of the buildings had green moss growing on it.

  ‘This tiny plant is slowly eating up the wall!’ the boy’s brain conjured up visuals of a demonic chunk of moss chomping away on the wall, then the building, and then the road itself. ‘That is very scary!’ Onni picked up a stick and was about to scrape the moss off the wet wall. Just then, he saw something else.

  Right on the velvet green coating on the old wall was a huge snail. He decided to wait and watch where the snail was creeping to. But it hardly moved. The sight of this giant snail made Onni stare in wonder. It left a wet slimy trail behind. His eyes followed the trail. It turned around the wall and continued. ‘What a long way this snail has come,’ Onni thought. ‘It must have started so many days ago.’

  ‘If the snail leaves home to attend the naming ceremony of a child, it would reach only when the child grows up and is ready to get married!’ the boy was amused at the thought.

  As he followed the snail-trail, Onni suddenly realised that the big leaves nearby were moving. From under the leaves, four legs of a creature were sticking out. ‘What animal is that?’ Onni wondered, a little scared. The legs looked oddly human. ‘It sure must be some strange demon!’

  He could see it had four legs. The legs were moving in a strange way. ‘This beast with four legs must have fallen down,’ he figured as the legs were not standing, they were flat on the heavily grassy ground. Curiosity compelled him to try to see the monster completely and his eyes darted under the leaves. ‘Two legs are hairy and two are smooth. What kind of beast is this?’ he was thinking when what he saw burned itself into his memory.

  ‘Was it really a man and a woman lying together there, doing something?’

  Huff!

  ‘Why were their clothes lying a little away?’

  Huff!

  ‘Were they doing dirty things?’

  Huff!

  ‘Why did I not take the school bus?’

  Huff!

  Onni ran. The questions followed him. He ran as hard as he could through the long desolate street, towards Didima’s house. But his thoughts kept pace with him.

  ‘It must be fun for men to remove clothes in front of a woman.’

  Huff!

  ‘Then why did Mr. Kamath always do that in front of me?’

  Huff!

  ‘He also touched me there.’

  Huff!

  ‘Should I tell Baba?’

  Huff!

  Onni kept running.

  ‘Hey boy, your bag’s open!’ somebody screamed.

  Onni slowed down. He was gasping for breath, his heavy bag hanging behind him. His hard black leather shoes were making his feet hurt. But he did not care. He just had one thing in his head – the four-legged monster under the leaves that had just turned into a naked man and naked woman lying together. He wished he could wait a little longer to see what they were doing. But he was too scared to.

  ‘What’s your name?’ the tall boy asked Onni.

  ‘I am Onniruddh Ray.’

  ‘Your uniform says you are from our school,’ he said with a smile.

  He was sitting with some friends on one of the low walls that Onni was passing. As he spoke, he was joined by some other grown-up boys. They were all in long pants. ‘They must be studying in the secondary section of my school,’ Onni thought to himself.

  ‘What are they doing here?’

  His question was answered by the burning cigarettes between their fingers.

  ‘Which class?’ one of them asked.

  ‘5 th Standard...’

  ‘Heavy bag for a 5 th Standard boy to carry, Onniruddh!’ another boy said.

  ‘It’s okay.’

  ‘Why are you walking? Didn’t take the school bus?’ a fourth one asked.

  ‘I take it every day. Today, I wanted to walk.’

  ‘You want a puff?’ the first tall boy asked holding up his hand with the cigarette.

  ‘No!’

  ‘You are scared!’ they all laughed.

  Onni did not answer. He just started walking. All the elder boys started shouting. ‘What kind of a man are you? Afraid of smoking, haah?’

  But he did not care and kept walking.

  ‘Your bag is open, Onniruddh,’ he heard from behind.

  ‘Let it be.’

  ‘No, wait... I’ll shut it for you...’

  The tall boy ran behind Onni to shut the bag for him. Onni heard a click, thanked him and started walking again. ‘Bye!’ they all yelled laughing.

  Onni finally reached Didima’s house. It was a little late as he had walked all the way.

  He needed water after all that running and walking.

  ‘What’s that written on your school bag, Onni?’ Maa who had come to hold his bag asked as Onni glugged some water thirstily.

  He put his loaded school bag down and finally saw what she was talking about. There were four alphabets written on his school bag with a dark marker – F U C K.

  Onni figured it was written by that boy who had come to shut his bag.

  But Onni did not know what it meant.

  Twenty-four

  ‘Y ou don’t know what it means, Onni... You just

  don’t know what it means,’ Noor’s lips trembled. The tears were not far behind.

 
Onni knew exactly what it meant though. He knew perfectly well what he had done. Years ago, it was for Heena. Today it was for Noor.

  ‘Poor Hitendra!’ he thought.

  That Saturday had begun quite perfectly at a bookstore. It was a holiday at work. No stupid meetings to make Onni feel dead and no crazy deadlines to meet. Nestled amidst books and more books, he sat in a corner hidden from the world and flipped through. They were not pages; they were windows — windows that took the young man wherever he wanted to drift to. He remembered the book case at home, the one that had the fish stickers on the glass. The stickers had peeled off, the glass had cracked and had been replaced and the books were all coming apart. But Onni simply loved the feeling of being flooded by the dismembered pages of yesterday.

  He picked up a book on birds. In those pages he would try to find that little finch that had pinched his palm. But here too, the bird was all silent and motionless. Every time he just looked at the book and walked away. Today was no different… Until he saw her. He stopped dead in his tracks. A few racks away, stood Noor.

  Onni went blank.

  He needed to do something. He needed to say something. But his head was so full suddenly. Noor’s lips, Noor’s eyes, Noor’s hips, Noor’s hair, Noor’s everything. Onni was flooded. So he just turned away into a random direction to quickly think up of something.

  There, in front of him, lay a plan. ‘Thick drawing paper... Some 2B pencils for sketching... A nice eraser...’ he said to the store helper.

  Onni had a steady, trained hand that perfectly held pencils, pens and brushes. ‘Perfect for Noor...’ he smiled to himself. Holding the long rolls of paper out in front of him, he walked straight to the lady.

  ‘My arsenal is ready,’ he said as he stopped next to her.

  ‘What are you going to draw?’ Noor asked Onni with a smile.

  ‘You,’ he beamed back.

  Noor looked silently into Onni’s eyes. He hoped that she was not thinking that he too, like all men, was trying to wrest her from her clothes by using his charm. Although, he was. Onni wanted to and was trying to get her to sleep with him. But he did not want to be thought of like that.