Shankar's days

It had been decided. This time for sure! Shankar had decided that he would ask the village electrician to fix the bulb in such a way that it would light up the narrow road that ran along between his house and tha village school.

This was the third time. Some busy body, rather a mischief monger had deliberately changed the bulb's direction towards his house. 

It had been so a few months before too, and Shankar had taken care of it by taking the help of the local electrician.

Shankar's family was one of the handful of well to do families in this part of Indian village. And there lay the problem. 

If you had money, you had to be corrupt. And there would be those who would always point at you and heap all their causes of various misfortunes on them who were better off.

When Shankar would go out to buy vegetables, fish and pulses from the market at a five kilometre distance, he would call an auto rickshaw for the to and fro run. 

That also raised eyebrows. Why was it that he would travel far to get the bazaar when things were available near to home?

It was also a problem when he would be watering the plants, he had so fondly raised from their sapling stages. The plants had borne fruits now. They stood proud and tall. And while India was facing a scorching summer, the mild breeze that blew , shifted among the branches and their silent but graceful dance made Shankar smile.

He was 78 years old. His wife, seven years younger was his only friend. She was not a green thumbed one, but took care of the trees and plants while he would be feeling tired or would be busy with some other work.

He was very lonely but definitely not without a friend. His wife was his friend and companion. So were the trees that grew right before his eyes.  His batchmates had retired. Some of them were away in different countries, or other states, living with their sons, daughters and grand children. Some had left for heaven. And some, felt very.feeble

He was a retired government service holder, and his new found hobby was picked up from watching some gardening videos on YouTube. .

People, even some young ones did feel jealous. How could he, at this age, having bent knees and so slow manage with all this activity? 

Some of his neighbours had terrace gardening done. He thought of turning the low lying, uneven beds of soil surrounding his two storied house into a garden having fruit trees. 

Now, as the cost of vegetables, summer fruits ,like Mangoes and Litchies were soaring. be it Blinkit, Flipkart 12 minutes delivery or the local market, price rise was a major disturbance.

So, andso! The ripe and semi ripe Mangoes that hung from the branches were very close to his heart.

As they stayed alone, they had to be wary. Sometimes, as they had noticed, there were petty village thieves who carrying a pocket knife and riding bicycles would sometimes try to cross the brick wall and of course they would fail to do so. The boundary wall was 11 feet tall. So were the iron gates. 

And then, there were dogs and puppies in the vicinity who would arrive in the morning hours to get a few pieces of biscuit. Sometimes they would also visit in the evening wagging their tails.

And so were the passing days of summer. The wait for the rains were visible from the parched soil and over heated air circling around.  As the days passed so did Shankar's grit. Frail in body, but strong in spirit , he never gave up!