This Is Not That Dawn: Jhootha Sach Read Online Free PDF

Bhabhi got a lehanga, a dupatta and five rupees! Still she kept complaining. She wanted ten rupees instead. And yousaw that when we asked her, she didn’t come to your house. Said she had a headache. What a liar! When she gets home she’ll go to her room with my brother, close the door, and do you-know-what. She’s so shameless that she doesn’t even care what time of day it is.’
    ‘What?’ Tara asked.
    ‘Oh!’ Sheelo smiled and said in a knowing voice, ‘I peeked through a crack in the door and saw them. Haven’t you ever seen it?’
    Tara’s face reddened with embarrassment, ‘There’s only one room in the house. Brother and Masterji sleep in the veranda. One night when I woke up to go to toilet …’ Tara hid her face with both hands.
    Overcome with laughter and embarrassment, she could hardly speak, ‘Hai, how to tell you! Hari, he’s only a child, and little Peeto who lives right across from our house; the girl who was wandering around without any shirt just now. Hai, how can I say it? They began to do… whatever in Peeto’s aangan. When Kartaro Auntie saw them, she dragged Hari over to mother and started to fight with her, “What’re you teaching the children? Have you no shame?”’
    ‘Mother shot back, “It was probably you who taught them. Your Peeto is older than my boy.” They had a big fight.
    ‘When Masterji came and heard, he gave Hari one good thrashing. He shouted at mother too, “Why don’t you put some underwear on that boy?” That’s what our house is like. Peeto’s house is just as small. These poor kids see things and think it’s just a game. I get so embarrassed, it’s so shameful.’
    Sheelo added her bit in a conspiratorial tone, ‘Guess what? I’ve seen father and mother too.’ She asked after some thought, ‘Are you afraid of boys?’
    Tara replied, ‘Some boys are bad. They tease so much I can’t stand it.’
    Sheelo said, ‘You know Baldev from our gali, I really like him. He’s so shameless, he winks every time I look at him.’
    They heard the sound of footsteps coming quickly up the stairs. Sheelo asked, ‘Your brother?’
    Tara said, ‘It’s probably Ratan.’
    The door to the room was already open. Ratan, the son of Babu Govindram, the neighbour from the other half of the house, peered in with books under his arm, and asked, ‘Auntie hasn’t come back from the mourning yet? My mother isn’t back as well.’
    Tara answered back curtly, ‘How can they be back so soon?’ Ratan went away.
    Sheelo had met Ratan several times before at Tara’s house. He was studying in the eleventh standard, and was about three years older than Tara. He was fair and tall and beginning to show a moustache.
    Sheelo smiled and looked into Tara’s eyes, ‘My, he’s turned out to be a real good-looker. Doesn’t he talk to you?’
    Tara’s face became serious as she said, ‘He’s really bad news. Always staring. When we meet on the stairway, he starts acting smart. I tell him: “Shame on you! Go to hell! Don’t you dare touch me! I’ll scream and tell your mother!”’
    Ratan and Tara had both been born in this same house. As kids, wearing only underpants, they played hide-and-seek, hopscotch and other games with the children of the gali. As they got older, they began to spend less time together. Once when Tara was eleven, she was coming home from school when some boys from another gali pushed her and made her drop her schoolbooks. When Tara came into the gali crying, Ratan who was also returning home from school, saw her and asked, ‘Did someone hit you?’
    Fresh tears began to flow from Tara’s eyes.
    Ratan grabbed Tara by the arm and said, ‘Come on, show me who.’
    Tara went back with Ratan to exact revenge. Ratan swore at the boys and challenged them. The boys from both sides put their school bags down on the street in the bazaar and had a scuffle. Tara looked on with pride. The people in the bazaar separated the boys and stopped the fight.
    Panting,