‘Prostitution, land-grabbing included?’

‘Camps, schools, hospitals, prostitution, land-grabbing, me being clothed and fed included…

Raahat took another crack at the muddy block of ice as Rajjo moved her face away to avoid the onslaught. After hammering the ice to a crunchy cluster, Raahat sat back in the corner of the tent, hidden by the table from plain view and retrieved a joint.

‘Where do you get this stuff from?’ Rajjo asked disapprovingly.

‘I have a nose for finding dealers. They supply to the foreign guests also!’

‘That is nothing to be proud of…’

‘Here comes your party…’ Raahat hurriedly hid the joint. Behind his talk, you could see his worry about Rajjo leaving the commune was eating him up.

Rajjo observed the van that arrived at the main door. The focus shifted to the stream of women walking in, most pleasant and good-looking. They all seemed happy, wore the white salwar-kameez like the sewadars and were shepherded by a woman wearing a green cotton sari and dark kohl-lined eyes, with shoulder-length silky hair that glistened in the sun. The others addressed her as Sarika Tai. She was in her late forties, and Rajjo loved the way she was dressed. Her cotton sari creased all over. She had a thin Titan watch across her wrist and she smelt of jasmine.

Sarika Tai looked in Rajjo’s direction as she and Kuljeet quietly shared a word. With an encouraging smile, Sarika Tai came across and sat down on a stool next to Rajjo.

Rajjo by now had taken the hammer and was replicating Raahat’s move to thrash another block of ice.

It somehow felt nice to thrash something as she spoke to Sarika Tai.

She introduced herself and told Rajjo about the women in her care. Rajjo smiled politely, and paused to take a breath.

‘You are beautiful,’ said Sarika Tai, assessing her amber eyes, lustrous curls falling below the waist, pink lips and dusky diaphanous skin, beauty difficult to hide even behind the dowdy attire of the sewadars. A connossieur admiring a delicacy from the glass window, she asked, ‘Do you have any questions for me?’

Rajjo stared at her and asked with a straight face.

‘A boy came here, hot and sweaty, thin and hungry, emaciated. Stood in the queue but did not get a drop of milk or a morsel of food. You think God was watching?’Anger sluiced through her.

Tai stared back. Rajjo smiled at her and turned away to hammer the block of ice into a crushed white pulp. She was not ready to have this chat yet.

Sensing her mood, Sarika walked away from Rajjo without any further questions.

As darkness cloaked the ashram, Rajjo looked up at the sky, worried she could not see the stars. She dreaded it would rain in the night, soiling the stage and the tents. They would have to redo a lot of work. As an extra measure, plastic sheets had been drawn over the lights and the cutouts. Rajjo knew these feeble efforts seldom stopped the whims of a downpour if it wanted to destroy.