‘Would you like to?’

He shook his head again, not looking up this time. Rajjo could see his bones sticking out from his tiny hands.

‘You like working with this loudspeaker guy?’

The boy shook his head and looked at Rajjo in the eye.

‘Would you like to do something else?’

The boy shook his head again and looked away.

Rajjo sighed and stood next to him.

‘There is good food in the lunch service, you must eat and go. Snacks and the sweet drink are also being served today. You can take them. It’s for free.’

The boy did not respond. And suddenly his rusty voice spoke hesitantly.

‘You are sewadar?’

Rajjo shook her head.

‘Would you like to become one?’

Rajjo shook her head again.

‘You like being here?’

Rajjo smiled at the boy and shook her head.

The boy smiled back.

They were one.

‘They are planning to throw me out.’

Rajjo uttered before she could stop herself. She wondered why she had said it. Almost like a burp bothering her somewhere in the system.

The boy stopped smiling, realizing he may not get his food if he was seen being pally with an outcast. Rajjo realized his discomfort and moved away, but she turned once more to smile at the boy and pointed him towards a queue. Thinking about her situation yet again, she felt a wave of nervousness creep up, a shiver in the hot dry afternoon. This was Kuljeet’s first direct move to get rid of her.

Kuljeet had informed Rajjo in the morning itself that the head of the women’s welfare wing of the organization, Sarika, would be having a word with her. She’d also added in an advisory tone that they offered women a lot of choices once they chose to step out of the commune and live in the real world, so she was free to take help and did not have to stay on in the ashram, spending her life as a devout. Her incarnadine coloured intention of ousting Rajjo whispered a crimson warning in Rajjo’s deaf ear.

‘Go out in the real world and explore. You have a life to make. The lord almighty, the one who created 8.4 million species of beings, gives sustenance to all.’ As Kuljeet whispered those words to Rajjo, a strange odour emanated from Kuljeet. An odour that had crossed innumerable fields and seasons; it smelt of baked mud with unsightly cracks for worms and water to seep through. Rajjo knew this was just the beginning. There were going to be more attempts to get Rajjo out of the commune.

Kuljeet resented that Rajjo was not relegated to the kitchen anymore and was working in the organization committee without her approval. What irked her more was, despite her disapproval, Rajjo had used the good favours of Arjan and Gurbaksha to stay on in the organization committee. Kuljeet’s furtive desire to remove Rajjo from the ashram was no longer cloaked by her prayer beads.