Khader’s father-in-law, Aziz, arrived from Kalakkad. Things had by now become strained between him and Khader. Aziz was convinced that Khader’s stupidity was entirely to blame for the loss of the cigarette franchise. When the whole mess had erupted, he had hoped Khader would come to Kalakkad and seek his advice. If that had happened, he could have untangled the mess and impressed Khader with his resourcefulness. He had even thought up many ideas and fixes. But Khader never gave him the chance to share them, so Aziz began to feel that Khader was disrespecting him by ignoring him, and he constantly spoke ill of Khader to his young wife. He told her his history with Khader, how he had been the first one to give him a break and how Khader seemed to have forgotten everything and become utterly ungrateful. His wife was amazed at how, day after day, he was intent on launching into a tirade against an enemy who was not even there.

Even the news of Khader’s contesting in the elections he learned only from reading the newspaper. “I’m sure somebody has put him up to this. Well, he’s still got that house to lose. Once that happens, he’ll really be out on the street,” said Aziz. He started railing against Khader to all his friends. “There’s no mystery to this. The boy has decided he wants to go back to rolling beedis! That’s all there is to it.”

Nevertheless, he started waking up at dawn so he could get to the market and wait for the bus that brought the morning newspapers. In addition to reading the dailies, he also managed to drag the latest information from passengers who got off the bus.

The news of Grandpa Peanut’s candidacy made his stomach turn. “This bastard’s got in the way now!” he muttered. It came as a serious blow to his secret hope that Khader would win. But since he had ranted so much against Khader to his wife, he couldn’t bring himself to share his true concerns with her now. So he gave her some lame excuse and boarded a bus.

The bus entered town, and Aziz started counting the election posters on the walls to see who had more, his son-in-law or his opponents. Once he got off the bus, he booked a room and left his suitcase there, then headed straight to Grandpa Peanut’s hut. But he didn’t expect such stubbornness from the old man.

“Look here, Aziz,” said the old man. “I am not going to drop out even if you give me one lakh gold coins.”

“Then you are going to let the other man win.”