Moosa Patel emerged from his room, exchanged greetings and then handed them an envelope. He told them that Yaqoob Umar Ibn Maqallab Mahayat’s maternal cousin, Ranjeeda Maqallab, would collect this cheque from them the following day in the office. Moosa told them that he was going to China to attend a diamond exhibition. Then he looked at Asrar and said, ‘Do not go and stay put at the village, do return. And convey my wishes to your family.’ Asrar replied with a smile, ‘Of course not, sir, will return soon.’ Moosa Patel accompanied them till the door to say goodbye. Before shutting it, Moosa said, ‘Yaqoob was such a brilliant man once, but circumstances …’ And he stopped. There was disappointment on his face. He took a deep, cold breath and uttered, ‘May God bless us.’

As soon as Mohammad Ali left the building, he hung his bag around the neck and wore the raincoat over it. Asrar opened his umbrella. It was still raining. They stood under a banyan tree for shelter. Asrar was holding on tightly to the umbrella and looking at Ali when he told the entire story of Yaqoob and his brother Sadiq. Moosa Patel had told Asrar of things which were only known to Yaqoob’s family and nearest friends. Asrar could clearly hear the story over the sound of the heavy rain and the rushing cars. The conversation included the information that during the 1992 riots, police had sided with the rioters and turned a blind eye towards the 1000 murders and more than 3000 people who were wounded. Yaqoob’s heart was broken because of those planned riots.

Nobody knows how a broken heart could respond and react. Ali said that extreme barbarism and cruelty were perpetrated. Places were set on fire. Houses were marked and then locked and burnt in the midnight. Mumba Devi had witnessed the fires, bloodshed and communalism. During those days Mumba Devi had heard the rishi’s soul who lived on the neem tree across from her window, telling the demons that ‘violence breeds violence and revenge breeds revenge’. A demon had said that the soul of the saint was that of a warrior who was famous in Shivaji Maharaj’s army for his bravery. The saint had also said that Shivaji was an honourable man under whose flag both Hindus and Muslims were united like two bodies in one soul and fought against the foreign enemies.