Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga [115]
LAST MAN IN TOWER
2 SEPTEMBER
Shanmugham loved, more than any other part of the city he lived in, this drive over the Bandra bridge. At night, with the water in the Mahim creek glossy black, the glowing signs of the Lilavati Hospital ahead, the square lights of the slums puncturing the darkness below him, it was like gliding over a film set.
Now, in the late afternoon, he saw the hazy blue piers of the half-built Worli Sea Link, standing in the distant water like a bridge from this world to the next. Sweat dripped from his helmet into his eyes and burned them.
He dreamed of orange juice served on crushed ice with lots of sugar and a sprinkling of red masala powder on top. He hoped he would find a fresh-juice stand close to the lawyer’s office.
Parking his bike near the train station, he removed his helmet and gave his hair a good shake, scattering sweatdrops around him like a dog that has taken a bath.
Among the ramshackle buildings by the train station he searched for the lawyer’s office. The glint of an open razor in a barber’s shop caught his eye. Famous Hair Cutting Palace. This was the landmark near the office.
He waited on the other side of the road.
Next to him, a man stood in a wooden booth surrounded by tomatoes, cucumbers, and boiled potatoes in buckets of water. With stacks of white bread and a bowl of butter on his table, he sliced the vegetables fine. A series of cardboard signs in English hung by thread from the ceiling of the little booth:
DO NOT ASK FOR CREDIT
DO NOT DISCUSS OUR COMPETITORS’ RATES
DO NOT ASK FOR FREE PLASTIC BAG
DO NOT ASK FOR EXTRA TOMATO SAUCE
DO NOT STAY FOR LONG TIME AFTER EATING
Shanmugham looked with envy at all those interdictions. The sandwich-maker might be a poor man, but he could lay down his own law.
But me, I have to do what the boss says. He throws the stick, I have to catch.
He wondered if he should get a quick toast sandwich.
An old man with an umbrella and a slight limp in his left leg went past the Famous Hair Cutting Palace, and turned into the building next door. Shanmugham stopped thinking about food.
A milky lunette let grey light into the stairwell of the Loyola Trust Building; a pigeon was thrashing its wings on the other side.
Masterji stopped on his way up to his lawyer’s office to kick the pain out of his left leg. He looked at the restless silhouette of the bird. He thought: Where did the rains go?
Taking out his handkerchief, he patted his moustache, which was soaking wet, and put the damp cloth back in his pocket.
The anaemic Ganesha sat in its dim niche on the landing. The small votive oil lamp added burnt fuel to the smell of meat curry. The four khaki-clad security guards were once again playing cards beneath the idol of the Ganesha. Their chappals, shoes, and socks napped together in a heap by the wall.
Within the Milky Way of the city, you can sometimes recognize an autonomous solar system: like these men playing their card games in near silence on this landing, breaking only to eat lunch or replace the wick of the oil lamp. Rich they would never be, but they had this eternal card-and-companionship afternoon. Masterji wondered, as he walked around the guards’ hands and feet, which looked like another set of cards placed on the ground, if they maintained a No-Argument book here.
PAREKH AND SONS
ADVOCATE
“LEGAL HAWK WITH SOUL & CONSCIENCE”
The courtesy in the lawyer’s office was much improved this time. The peon with the red pencil behind his ear smiled and said: “I’ll on the air-conditioner, sir, you’re sweating. The worst time of the year, isn’t it? The rains stop and it’s the middle of summer again.” He took Masterji’s black umbrella, gave it a shake, and placed it in a green plastic bucket with umbrellas of other colours.
A glass of water arrived on a brown tray; the peon bowed before Masterji.
“I’ve brought you the coldest glass of water in Mumbai city, sir. Coldest.”
Is he expecting a tip for this? Other petty workers, going about the office with their files, smiled at Masterji. He remembered the feeling—which he