but those last days overwhelmed his thoughts. Did he want to do this? Was it right to do this without his partner? Maybe, a better question was, could he do this without Marion? He could ring Jalal Singh now, make up any number of stories, invent any kind of reason why he had to change his mind. He was sorry but he couldn’t go to Uttar Pradesh and then he could cross to the other patform and go home.Don’t be silly he said aloud. You need to know all of the details about the assignment before you can make a decision.
He got the map up on his phone. It was very simple and ten minutes later he was standing facing a grey metal grille gate, a black number seventy three set into a massive blue concrete wall. On the other side of the wall, a block like double storey house the same colour as the wall. The signs of affluence.The intercom above the number seventy three added to the feeling of fortress. As they were leaving Phil Simpson had said that Jalal Singh was Ananda Marga, and Ananda Marga was about a hot day in Brisbane and the Hilton Hotel where Prime Minister Desai was staying and someone put the bombs in the rubbish bins.
At one minute to eleven Eliot pressed the intercom button. A flutter of nervousness.
Hullo, It’s Eliot Wilson.
Inside, Jalal Singh was watching the morning show and after a few seconds he glanced at his watch, reached across his enormous black leather couch for the remote control and turned the TV off.
Shanti please answer that and tell Mr Wilson I will be out in a few moments.
While Shanti spoke on the intercom, Jalal stopped at the hallway mirror looked at himself, ran one hand over his bald pate, straightened the collar on his shirt and ran his fingers over the large grey lawn of a moustache.
Outside, the intercom clicked and a woman spoke.
Mr Singh is on his way, Mr Wilson.
Thank you
Just as Eliot began to wonder, the front gate swung open. Jalal Singh was shorter and older than Eliot
An hour later Eliot was retracing his steps back to Strathmore station. He had met Jalal Singh who was turning his family home in Madho Patti, in Uttar Pradesh, into a school. It had been decided on a handshake. Eliot would travel to Madho Patti in three weeks, to work in this school. It was what he was expected to say. So he was keen to work at this school was he? So he wouldn’t become lonely in a strange country by himself, in a different world would he?
I think that it would be best for us to have our discussion in the coffee shop across the road. is that ok with you?
Jalal Singh had an assuredness, a self confidence that Eliot was to learn was unsettling for others, so as a response Eliot joked with the women behind the counter in the coffee shop. Good morning, great day isn’t it? You have a lovely smile. Sorry to be picky but I love my latte extra hot. At that moment Eliot did not notice that Jalal turned his head away and rolled his eyes. Could he have known that Jalal Singh wondered what was this man thinking? And he didn’t like his ponytail! Could he have guessed that Jalal Singh was unsure that this was the man he wanted to work in his school? Maybe he was too old. He did come highly recommended by his referees. At the end of their talk Jalal Singh told himself that Eliot would do.
Jalal and Eliot sat down and faced each other at a round table for two and waited for their coffee. Jalal had an enormous nose, like a ripe mango with two cavernous holes that stared back at him above a grey Hitleresque moustache. His top teeth protruded slightly when he spoke. Their was an awkward silence and then Eliot asked Jalal how long he had lived in Australia. Their coffee came and then Jalal began to speak.
Madho Patti where I was born is a very small village. The school has maybe two hundred students. The principal’s name is Madan, he is very busy but he will cook your meals. Our school teaches English unlike most schools in Uttar Pradesh. Don’t worry, the people of Madho Patti will be very happy to see him, especially because they had chosen to send their children to Madho Patti Junior Elementary School for good reasons, because they want their children to understand the true path in life and because they wanted them to learn to speak English.
We need someone to help set up the English program, to help the English teachers. Eliot would need to understand that in Uttar Pradesh most people outside of the school community were poor and uneducated, that they were strangely superstitiousand they wouldn’t know what to think about Eliot coming there. They would stare at him. Indian people had so many gods and no doubt one of them would explain what Eliot’s coming meant... in time. His air fare would be paid. He would be paid a small allowance. You are not allowed to have a personal computer at our school. Sometimes he could use the school computer and modem if Madan said it was OK.
It seemed to Eliot that Jalal was looking straight over his shoulder when he said that it was very hot in the day in Uttar Pradesh and just hot at night and he would need to sleep under a mosquito net,. There was a fan in their room, he would arrange for another one to be put in and the electricity only came from the grid for six hours a day and the fans would keep spinning as long as there was enough sun hitting the solar panels. When Eliot told Louise about what he had found out he said that when he needed to take a crap he would be squatting over a hole and when he washed he would be scooping cold water from a bucket, that all his food would be vegetarian that there were eight staff at the school and on good days about two hundred students
Eliot could sense that Jalal was almost finished. It seemed like that he could only afford just a little of his valuable time and now he seemed more serious or maybe a little uncomfortable. The treatment of women. You must be very careful in your relationship with women, you must remember that you cannot talk and act with women in Madho Patti like you do with women in Australia, like you just did then when we ordered coffee. You must always remember that you are not in Australia. Try to arrive in Varanasi on the seventeenth and Madan and I will be at the airport to meet you. I will be there with you for about five days before I return to Australia…………..One last thing more. The school is very small so we will have to share a room for those few days. I hope you don’t mind Eliot ………..Are you happy to take on this position?
Eliot extended his hand and looked Jalal in the eye and they shook hands. An agreement had been made.
No problem at all Jalal, I am excited by the challenge
On the walk back to the station his head was spinning, facts, unanswered questions, doubts and excitement.When Eliot stood on the platform waiting for the train he thought about the reality of sharing a room with Jalal! He heard Marion’s voice in his ear, what were you going on about last night in your sleep Eliot? I’m sure that the neighbours could hear. I was almost going to smother you with your pillow she would say with that smile.Then she would laughingly threaten to move to the spare bedroom. He doubted whether Jalal would find it funny.
6.
He had been sick many times, the girls had been too. He had fallen from his motorbike and broken his collarbone, sometimes he had felt undervalued and sometimes he just didn’t understand things, because of the problems of culture or language. Once there was no role for him, once the expectations seemed too high. He had contracted dengue fever, Brenda had died. But beside him at every challenge was his partner and Marion seemed to know her way around any problem. Could he do it on his own? In Uttar Pradesh, the poorest and most densely populated part of India, that wondrous, colourful, challenging and edgy country?
Eliot poured himself a second glass of red wine. On the train on the way home he had rung Louise with the news. Yes he was going. In a couple of weeks time. Would she like to come over for dinner and a wine to celebrate his new assignment? He would only be away for about eight weeks. But she said she was busy, going to some theatre production with friends. He didn’t mention the
