The 3 Mistakes of My Life Read online

  ‘And speaking of sons, I want you to meet my son today,’ Mama said and shouted, ‘Dhiraj! Dhiraj!’ Dhiraj, Mama’s fourteen-year-old son, came running from the temple compound. His Spiderman T-shirt and jeans contrasted with the plate of vermillion and saffron paste that he was carrying in his hand.

  ‘Baba, here you are. Let me put the tilak,’ Dhiraj said.

  Dhiraj put a tilak on Mama’s forehead. ‘Meet your brothers,’ Mama said. ‘Govind, Ishaan and, of course, Omi.’

  ‘Hi,’ I said.

  ‘The cricket shop owners. I love cricket,’ the boy said in a voice that had just broken into adolescence.

  ‘So young, yet he helps me with my campaign after school,’ Mama said with pride in his voice. ‘Two trips to Ayodhya already. Put tilak on your brothers, son.’

  Dhiraj put tilak on our foreheads too. ‘I have to finish puja. Ish bhaiya, you have to give me cricket tips someday.’

  ‘Sure, run along,’ Mama said.

  We came out of the godown. Mama bolted the door.

  ‘How is it going, Mama? You need me?’ Omi said.

  ‘Elections are only six months away. In a few months, the rallies will start. I have to show Parekh-ji what a brilliant job I can do.’

  I took out ten one-hundred-rupee notes and placed them in Mama’s hand.

  ‘Rent for the godown, Mama,’ I said.

  ‘Leave it no,’ he said.

  ‘Don’t say no, Mama. I am already obligated to you. Business is looking up. We will repay your loan soon, too,’ I said.

  ‘Hello, Pandit-ji? Can you hear me?’ I said. I received a call from Pandit-ji a month after I had opened the godown. The temple bells made it hard to talk and I had to strain my ears to hear his voice on the horrible line.

  ‘I have had enough, Govind. I want to marry my daughters off and go back to my Kashmir.’

  ‘I know Pandit-ji,’ I said. He had told me this story a dozen times.

  ‘Yes, but last week a nice family came to our house. They have two sons, both based in London. They will take both my daughters. Want to do it as early as possible.’

  ‘In one ceremony?’

  ‘Yes, imagine the saving. But if it is one ceremony, they want it in style. I have sold the godown, but I need a buyer for the goods.’

  ‘How much is the stock worth?’

  ‘Two lakhs of sale value. Of which retailers like you took twenty per cent margin, and I kept another ten per cent. The true cost is around one lakh forty thousand.’

  ‘I’ll take it for one lakh,’ I said on impulse. Ish and Omi looked at me in suprise. What crazy scheme was I up to now?

  ‘One lakh forty is the cost, and now you want to buy it off me at a loss?’

  ‘I am buying everything.’

  ‘Give me the money by next month, you can take it for one ten,’ Pandit-ji said.

  ‘I said one lakh. No more.’ I said in a firm voice.

  ‘When can you take the stock? The godown buyer needs possession fast,’ Pandit-ji said.

  ‘Today,’ I said.

  When I told Ish and Omi about the deal later, worry lines crisscrossed their foreheads. I saw a gold-mine trade. India had performed great in the recent series. The summer vacations would start in a few weeks. If I sold it all, I could double my money.

  ‘You know what you are doing, right?’ Ish was doubtful.

  I looked at him. My risks had let him down before. Yet, you can’t do business without taking bets.

  ‘Yes, I do. Do you trust me?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘But his daughter is gone.’

  ‘What?’ I said, puzzled.

  ‘You had a thing for her,’ Ish reminded me.

  ‘Oh,’ I said and looked away. You have no idea who has a thing for whom buddy, I thought.

  Business exploded in the next three months. Every Indian kid played cricket in May and June. Experts had called the India-Australia series historic. The actual matches had taken place during the exams. The pent-up cricket fix came out properly only in the vacations.

  ‘Is this how Harbhajan grips the ball?’ a seven-year-old tried to fit the cricket ball into his tiny fist.

  ‘Laxman and my batting styles are identical,’ said another boy in the park.

  Customers at the temple shop tripled. Our wholesale business fared even better. Retailers never stopped calling.

  ‘What? Pandit-ji is going back to Kashmir? Anyway, two boxes of balls in City Mall sports shop?’ said one.

  ‘I’ve taken over Pandit-ji’s business. Call us, we deliver in two hours,’ I told another large shop in Satellite.

  ‘No, cash down only. Ahmedabad has no quality stock. You want now, pay now,’ I said to a credit seeker.

  I kept track of cash, Omi did deliveries, while Ish manned the shop. When schools reopened, he also looked after the monthly supply business. We now supplied to four schools. It took a national holiday on 15 August for us to have a quiet day at the shop.

  ‘We should have kept kites. Look at the sky, that’s easy money,’ I said as I counted cash.

  ‘Hurry up with the accounts,’ Omi said. ‘Mama wants us there by four.’

  Mama had planned his rally on Independence Day, the same day as Ali’s dad had planned a speech for his party’s candidate. What’s more, both the rallies took place at the same venue, at the opposite ends of Nana Park.

  ‘We will get there by four. But guess what’s our profit for the last four months,’ I faced the two.

  Both shrugged.

  ‘Seventy thousand,’ I said.

  ‘Seventy what?’ Ish said.

  ‘That’s right. Out of which forty thousand will be used to repay our loans. The remaining thirty is ours,’ I said and passed on a bundle of notes to each of them.

  ‘Who decides how to cut this money?’ Ish said.

  ‘I do, any problem?’ I said and realised I had come across too firm.

  ‘Nope. So, how many loans do we have left?’

  ‘Only twenty thousand more, if you count the interest. We will repay all by the end of the year,’ I said and locked the safe. I kept the key in my shirt pocket. I stood up to do a stock inventory in the godown.

  ‘Hey, Govind,’ Ish said as he pulled my arm down.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Australia,’ he said.

  ‘C’mon, we have discussed it. Yes, it was nice to meet Fred and Ali is good. Just the visas cost three thousand each.’

  ‘Fred is giving the tickets,’ Ish said.

  ‘But we will still spend a lot. I’d imagine at least ten thousand a head, or forty thousand for the four of us,’ I said. I wanted to go as well, but I couldn’t afford to spend so much on a junket.

  ‘Here is my ten,’ Ish said and tossed the bundle back to me. ‘My contribution to the Australia fund.’

  I looked at Ish and Omi. These guys are nuts. Super nuts.

  ‘Take this money home and toss the bundle at your dad. You need to.’

  ‘Dad is only going to find another reason to curse me,’ Ish said.

  ‘Here’s mine.’ Omi tossed in his bundle, too.

  ‘C’mon Omi,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t work for money. I’m with you guys and don’t have to be a priest. That’s good enough for me.’

  ‘Well then let’s save it for the business and…,’ I was interrupted immediately.

  ‘No, this money is for Australia only.’

  ‘Just when the business was looking up! Oh well,’ I said and tossed my bundle too.

  ‘There you go,’ Ish said, ‘we’ve got thirty grand done. Now if only you don’t pay the loan this time.’

  ‘No way Ish. The loan has to be repaid.’

  ‘We will repay it – later,’ Ish said.

  ‘Ish, you don’t listen. What if the other expenses end up higher?’

  ‘We will spend as little as possible. We’ll take enough theplas and khakras to eat for the stay. Fred will arrange the stay. Think about it man, the Australian cricket team,’ Ish