STORIES (10) : All Is Well That Ends Well : For the Writing Contest
All Is Well That Ends Well :
That evening while Matron Tapasi was sitting with the more sober, mild-mannered inmates on the roof of the DDUG, a central government undertaking, where students aged between 18-35 were groomed to earn a livelihood, Shibuda, the Caretaker cum Guard, came running up :
“Madam, there are some men in bikes waiting outside the gate. They were asking for Maidul.”
“So, what’s wrong with that? Didn’t you tell them that Maidul along with some other boys have been to the market place?”
“I did, Ma’am but looks like Maidul teased a girl, who is the sister of Jainal, kinda local Don in the market place. These men are braying for Maidul’s blood.” Shibuda sounded really worried.
“Ok, let me go down then.” Having said so, Tapasi got up reluctantly.
As the gates were opened, the leader of the pack, for they were all young men in their late twenties or early thirties – his curly hair down on his shoulder; a heavy golden chain around his neck; looking like the Devil himself, spoke out :
“Madam, we’ve nothing against you. You’re the reason why those spoilt brats (pointing to the group of the timid hostellers behind me) have started behaving themselves lately. Good for them. So, we won’t do any harm to anyone except that abductor..?”
“Abductor! Who was trying to abduct whom?” Tapasi couldn’t help asking.
“What’s his name?” The leader asked one of his goons before coming out with the name himself. “Maidul. His name’s MAIDUL. You know what that hooligan did? He had the guts to tap my sister..My Sister….from behind!”
He looked annoyingly at the Matron as if expecting her to fall at his feet for such a heinous crime by one of the inmates of the hostel. But the Matron was made of sterner stuff. She looked around before asking,” So, you’re here looking for Maidul, right? But let me tell you that they’re yet to be back from the market place. You can search the building if you don’t believe me..”
The leader looked her in the eye for a full minute before asking his men to leave the place.
“We’re going now, Madam, but we’ll be back after a while. The best thing for you to do will be to hand over the mother-fu—-,” he stopped in the middle before concluding, “for the good of all these children here.”
It didn’t take any special intelligence for the Matron and the boys to realise the implied threat behind his muttered words.
Hardly had the pack left DDUG when the culprit, Maidul entered followed by his gang.
It was useless trying to persuade him to confess to his crime. Anyway, the fearful tone of Shibuda, a local himself coupled with the entreaties made by the other inmates, forced him into deciding to flee from the hostel temporarily.
But how was he to get away from the place? The goons were probably waiting outside for him right then.
So, a desperado, Maidul was made to hide himself in the tree tops some two-three yards away behind the walls on the northern side. How he jumped into those trees from the roof of the hostel, how he stayed away for nearly an hour, especially in that snake-infested area, may be everybody’s guess. But the fact of the matter was that when two youths were allowed to reenter the hostel in the evening with the rest of their pack waiting outside, they didn’t find Maidul anywhere though they nearly ransacked the whole place!
“I told you, na, that Maidul hasn’t returned to hostel!” Tapasi exclaimed. Then as if struck by another thought, she ventured out, “I hope you guys didn’t kidnap him?” She sounded really panic-stricken.
“Don’t you worry, Madam. If we find him,” the leader replied very slowly before concluding, chuckling, “that’s the last you’ll hear of him.”
After their departure, the room Captains in consultation with the Matron, spent the next few hours making sure that the goons were not hiding outside. Only after they were sure of no untimely intervention, did they signal Maidul to return to the hostel via the same way he had used to vanish from the place earlier.
The inmates, most of whom were drunkards, criminals with prison records not so long ago, but who all were changing for the better, after the arrival of the new Matron – spent hours coming to a common consensus how to save Maidul from the local goons. Finally, it was decided that Maidul would leave the place in the wee hours of the morning hiding amongst the vegetable-baskets in one of those lorries that commuted to Kolkata everyday. Arunavo, the Captain, dared to accompany him till the borders of the South 24 Pargana district.
The plan was carried out down to a T. Later, at around 8 in the morning, Arunavo called the Matron to let her know that Maidul was out of the danger zone by then.
And with that the whole DDUG ought to have heaved a sigh of relief.
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It would have been nice if the story had ended there. But reality is stranger than fiction, they say.
The next day, Matron Tapasi was sipping a cup of tea during the Break at around 10 in the morning. Prof. Sushovan Babu, the Spoken English Teacher came to the office.
“Really, Madam Tapasi, you’ve changed the boys miraculously! Nowadays, they are even trying to reply back in English..”.
He had to leave the sentence midway as there came an uproar from the yard. Following the commotion, Tapasi turned her attention to the gate.
There accompanied by his parents and a respectable-looking man, Maidul was stepping inside the hostel! The news of his return to hostel must have spread like wildfire. For within ten minutes of their entry, a multitude of menacing looking thugs sprang up inside the hostel.
Maidul in the meantime, was introducing the neatly dressed man to the Matron, “Mamu, this is our Tapasi Madam. I’d not be alive today without her help.” Then turning to Tapasi Madam, he said,” Madam, this is my Mamu – Jainal Abedin.”
The leader of the pack was about to enter the room when he chanced to see the Mamu and hear Maidul mention his name. He put a restrained hand on the shoulders of the impatient man who was heading towards Maidul.
The leader, from the threshold of the door, made a call from his mobile. Within no time the car of the local MLA was seen rushing to the gates of the hostel.
Matron Tapasi, greatly unnerved by the turn of events unfolding, uttered a silent prayer to God.
“Save the child, Maidul. There’s no hope for him now.”
The local MLA was seen dashing towards the Office when he happened to see Maidul’s mamu.
“Jainal tui?” (Isn’t that you Jainal?)
“Amin na? Tui ekhane?” (Aren’t you Amin? What are you doing here?) Soon they were hugging and patting one another’s back like mad.
It goes without saying that the two were the best buddies at college.
After a while, when things had cooled down considerably, Jainal Abedin was asking his nephew, Maidul to beg the girl’s forgiveness and so on.
The grapevine has it that Amin’s sister was head over heels in love with Maidul.
Do I have to tell you the ending down to the divine shahenai of the wedding?
The End
