The next paragraph is devoted to facts and figures of funds embezzled in every district of the state. Anima is astonished. Although Anna's language sounds a little old-fashioned now, what the article says holds true even today. The date at the top of the cutting is 4 March 1954. How strange! The fourth of March was also the date on which Anna disappeared in 1994. For forty years he had suffered the knowledge of his beloved country rotting from within. One day, his daughter's husband was murdered in the name of religion. Did it drive him to despair? Did he lose his mental balance temporarily? Had it become impossible for him to see things in a larger perspective that went beyond his individual life? Was it during those moments of weakness that he had run away, abandoning his work and those he most loved and cared about?

But that couldn’t have been true. Nobody had seen any signs of despair. Bachchu Kaka would have been the first to notice. There is only one answer that makes it understandable. He must have had an idea—a scheme that he wanted to put into action. Perhaps its nature prevented him from revealing it to anybody. He must have been afraid that his loved ones would exert emotional pressure on him to stop him from going away.

The clock downstairs strikes ten. Anima stands up. She pulls all the files out of the cupboard, dusts them, ties them up in an old bed sheet and puts them beside her overnight bag. In the morning she stands silently, looking at her mother. It irritates Ai.

‘What are you looking at?’

‘Ai, lock up this house and come and stay with me. Please listen to me,’ Anima holds her mother's hands and speaks in an urgent voice. Her mother disengages her hands. ‘Don’t go on about the same thing. I’ve said no. Here. Take this sheera. I made it for Ashesh. Give it to him. Who’ll eat it here?’

Anima looks at the Gandhi memorial. ‘I’ll take these scriptures next time.’

‘Make it soon, please. Who knows when this thing will come down?’

‘Come down? Why should it?’

‘How many years will it stand under sun and rain? It's bound to collapse one day. I don’t want to carry that inauspicious event on my head.’

In the train Anima returns to what Ai said, trying to understand its meaning. She doesn’t understand. As a matter of fact, she admits to herself that she has stopped understanding Ai altogether.

8

Horn OK Thank You!

Last month, industrialist and art connoisseur Shirish Sethi held his annual ten-day art camp at his sprawling bungalow in Goa. Five young and five senior artists participated. Janaki Patil in conversation with Mumbai's well-known artist Haridas, one of the senior participants at the camp.

Haridas. He has no surname. But he has made a name for himself all over India and abroad.