A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

I want to make sure that everything is
in order and in conformity with the law.”
“Sure, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Grace returns with an old but artistic
looking wooden box from which she takes
out some crinkly looking papers, gone
yellow with age. From these papers she
fishes out a small piece of paper.
“Here you are! This is Auntie’s will.
But there is a rumour that some
unscrupulous people had procured another
will from her. Our lawyer is fighting a
case against them. The government has
also assured us that if we can prove that
our will is the genuine one there will be
no bar to our selling the property. There
is no doubt that Sunny Cradle is ours.
You can see that our grandfather’s and
grandmother’s pictures are still hanging
here.”
“Miss Grace, till the issue of your will
is settled how can you sell Sunny Cradle?”
“We shall petition the Viceroy.”
“You can’t petition the Viceroy,” I
said giving her an incredulous look. “But
you may petition the Chief Minister.” I
said this just to humour her. “Wait, let
me bring pen and paper,” she said in
all seriousness.
“Now please dictate,” she said coming
back with the material.
“I’ll write in my own handwriting. Please
start.”
“We have fallen on bad times,” I
dictated. “Our money in the bank ... ’’
“Wait, Mr Nath. We shouldn’t write
this. They will think we are poor.”
“But what difference will it make?”
“Of course, it will make a difference.
Nobody will respect us. Nobody will obey
us.”
“All right, you may strike it out then.”
“I’ll write we are no more rich.” I
further dictated-”We want to go away
because we have grown old.”
“No, Mr Nath, we shouldn’t write like
this. Instead I’m going to write that we
are no more young.”
“As you like it. You are free to make
any changes in your mature wisdom.”
I had started losing interest in the
kothi. But the two sisters seemed to have
pinned their hope in me. They offered
me tea and urged upon me to come again.
Nurie came with me up to the gate.
“Did they discuss the sale with you?” she
asked. “Good, now you’ll be coming here
quite often. They all come for a few days
and hover around their lawyers with a
copy of the will. And when they learn
that even in her death this Auntie has
not lost her hold on the kothi they give
up in disgust.”
“So a lot of people come here? On
the face of it, it appears that nobody
ventures near the kothi. “
January-March 2012 :: 119