‘Too much of anything is bad. It is a curse. Wrap up this empire before it eats you up.’

Saroj had seen the wealth come in, she had seen the family getting rich, and she had seen what it had done to of each one of them. She was worried the first time her daughter had come back to the village in a big glistening car and said she was here to take them all away. She was selling God and she had made a fortune. Saroj should have stopped her then but perhaps it was too late.

The empire her children nurtured had grown now and it held them in its shackles. She arrogantly looked at a mother defeated. She drove her children as slaves, making them forget the simple joys of calling out the weather, rolling in the hay or sitting around the courtyard waiting for the first monsoon shower. Saroj hated the Durga trust with a vengeance and if Saroj could give it a human form she would gouge the eyes out of it.

‘I am not the only one eating from it. It has become Rano’s dream. Reet’s husband runs the factories, Rikki’s father-in-law is expanding the manufacturing unit, Sheru, as you know, is doing a lot more than he is supposed to and that is going to stop. There are many who have toiled long and hard…’ Rajjo said in a voice laced with an emotion that was hard to describe.

‘In God’s name you fleece them, in God’s name your people commit crime, I worry for you... When his wrath comes.’ Saroj’s voice shook again with fear for her child.

‘He has already done what he could and forgotten me, there is nothing to worry,’ Rajjo cut Saroj’s statement midway with a touch of vehemence. Saroj sighed as she pointed out to her daughter, ‘You sit under this shade, sleep in silk and satin, bathe in milk and oil, and you think he has forgotten you? He is keeping you very much in his sight and you should be afraid of the day when he does forget you!’

‘I sell him in the market place.’ Scoffed Rajjo. ‘Because he allows you…you are doing good for people, Rajjo, they believe you, and through you him!’

‘I sell him! It’s a sham.’ Saroj smiled at her daughter’s ignorance. Time was going to whisper in her ear what the others could not. The mother and daughter sat there without talking. Both defeated in their own way. Saroj’s heart ached for her daughter yet again. She was always the troubled one. And then like a mother and daughter sharing a beautiful secret, Saroj whispered in her daughters ear,’Does he make you happy?’ Rajjo looked at her as tears glistened in her eyes. ‘Very’. Saroj sighed, ‘So that’s where you begin and that’s where you end.’