A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

was agitated.
‘The house may belong to the landlord,
but for the time being, it is ours. We
have to cope with it. Illegal, my foot.
Here people keep on draining water without
telling anyone.’
‘Other’s share also. You know, now
I understand why there is deficiency of
water. Those having boosters draw the
pressure out of the pipeline. Nothing is
left for others. Those who don’t have
boosters, face difficulties.’
‘That is why, a booster is essential,
whether you install it in the garage or
in the bathroom. Have you not seen, the
tank of Mrs. Roy always overflows. In
our tank, there is not even a drop of
water.’
‘But due to this lack of trust, if everyone
goes on installing boosters, what will happen
to the general system and the common
man?’
‘Same, what is happening to us. Get
up at unearthly hours in the night, fill
water and spend life in wrangling.’
This time he could not dispute Saroj’s
logic. Till now, he had not noticed this
truth. If one wants to draw adequate water
for one’s, convenience from the public
pipelines laid for the distribution of water,
then it is necessary to install a booster,
regardless whether others get the water
or get less. Within himself, he started
calculating the cost of pump head for the
booster and the motor rating, but his
mathematics was not getting clear in the
twilight of understanding.
As usual, Saroj was apprising him of
the colony news. ‘Mrs Verma has a stock
of woolen clothes. She is giving pashmina
shawl for four hundred only. Should I
take two or three. I will send it to my
mother’s house. They are very costly there.’
‘What is the guarantee that they are
cheap here?’
’Goodness, they are known to us.’
‘But business from home?’
‘Some acquaintance of hers has kept
the stock. She is giving me for four hundred.
Otherwise, it does not cost less than five
hundred. And listen, saris are available
cheap at Mrs. Kaul’s. Here everybody is
doing some part time business sitting at
home. Mrs. Roy was offering me to start
some part time business jointly. Let us
start a school, run a beauty parlor or
make pickles or papad. Whatever you do,
it flourishes.’
He was clearly seeing the image of
the passion natural to women in his wife’s
voice. ‘You decide for yourself. Otherwise
also, wives of big shots do all such things
illegally to save income tax on paper.’
After that, whenever he passed in front
of the flat of Mr. Roy, the rumbling sound
used to sound louder. In any case, he
used to hear the same rumbling in a low
104 :: January-March 2012