Dharam Yuddh - 3

Four PM arrived and now, three boys cycled from Dwaraka Nagar to Patna Public School. The same rickety road, except we weren’t wearing girl’s clothes and being cool. Well no, Sarathi was always effortlessly cool. Vijay was writing Devanagari on his back. 

“Ah, guess this letter.”

“Hm… Ru?”

“Oops, close?”

“Ah.” Sarathi laughed. “Ruu.”

“Correct! Ten points for V. Sarathi!”

Vijay rubbed Sarathi’s back, as if erasing the letter Ruu off. 

“Okay, stop it now. Vijay. I’m trying to pedal here.”

“Shall I-”

“No, Pavan. Conserve your energy.”

I sighed. Usually Sarathi had no trouble cycling, but that was because he mostly went doubles with scrawny little Vijay. They would have the best conversations. I was used to doubles with Dharam (hey, that sounds cool), but now, we were deliberately trying to avoid his sight due to his aversion to violence. Despite his approval of the battle with Sandhu, Dharam would have definitely preferred it if it had been some other challenge, like chess or a board game.

“I should have brought my cycle.”

“No, no. It’s okay. This is nice.”

I was a bit surprised Sarathi wasn’t panting, but maybe he was just very fit without our knowledge. As he had said, his greatest weakness is none of our business, a lot of things about him can’t be our business either. 

“Sarathi…”

“Yes, Vijay?”

“What shall we do during the match?”

“Be there to support our friend. What else?”

He leant forward and whispered something in Sarathi’s ear. 

“Chee! Why?” Sarathi giggled. 

Vijay grinned widely. 

“I’m just interested.”

I did not want to know what Vijay was interested in.

Sarathi braked at the cricket grounds, and I noticed the abundance of cycles and scooters and mopeds around us. Vijay got off the cycle and looking somewhere, laughed out loud.

“Whoa, check that crowd out!”

I whipped my head over. Crowd? There had been no mention of a crowd in the deal. I looked at Sarathi, who shrugged at me. I bit my lip. I didn’t want to fight in front of a crowd. 

A couple of Sandhu’s goons (friends) walked up to us. They were our height and lighter than us. I don’t know where they got their impudence from… Oh wait. Actually, I do know. 

“You’re Pavan from Kurukshetra?”

I nodded. They looked at each other and laughed. 

“What, you won’t answer with words or anything?”

I tried glaring at them, but it must have just looked like I had a problem with my eyelids. Sarathi put a hand on my shoulder and I felt like something had lifted off my back. I exhaled and nodded at the goons. 

“I am Pavan Kumar, and I am here to fight your class president.”

They laughed again, and beckoned us to follow them into the arena. 

The murmur in the crowd dimmed down as we walked in, similarly to when Mohini, Sena and Rihanna had trod through the doors of Patna Public School that morning. 

“Are these the girls from this morning?”

“Chee, and you said you’d never look at another girl again!”

“Shut up! I take it back!”

The main fighting spot was the little cricket pitch of the grounds. The stumps had been taken away and a line had been drawn in the middle. Sandhu stood on the other side, wearing nothing but his boxers, and massaged his thighs with coconut oil. I didn’t want to touch those thighs. Or really any part of him. 

“Arre, what are you doing wearing so many clothes to a Kabaddi match? Take it off!” He shouted upon seeing me. A huge cheer went out through the crowd and I blushed. Sarathi gave me a reassuring smile and I took off my standard comfortable t-shirt and track-pants. They were easy to do everything in. Now, I felt like I was going to go swimming, when really I was going to get beaten up.

Sandhu walked up to me and held out the oil. 

“Do you want some?” He smirked.

I shook my head. I had never done a body oil massage before. I only did head massages, and that was only because Dharam said it’s good to have an oil bath every once a week. Of course, my mother said that as well. 

Sandhu sneered at me and chucked the oil to his goons, who caught it and kept it near his resting place. A kid with an affable face jumped up and put on a hat and whistled for silence. 

“Welcome everyone to this epic Kabaddi match of the year! I am Dev Sahni, the captain of PPS’ Kabaddi team, and I will be the judge for this event!” He cleared his throat as everyone cheered for him. “Firstly, I want to ask you all, as I’m a great game commentator, would you like me to commentate for you?”

A loud “Yes!” rose in the crowd, and the annoyed Sandhu stormed up and pushed Sahni, who turned back with wide eyes. 

“You’re only here to judge. Don’t try to get back into everyone’s good books again. You’ll never be class president while I’m here.”

Sahni sighed and with a forced smile, said to the crowd, “No commentary then. We’ll begin the match. Everyone cheer for our very own Sandhu as the first ‘raider’!” 

A cheer arose again, as Sandhu waved at them and then looked at me. He bent down and touched the line, after which he started reciting the main letters, ‘ka-ba-di’. My mind went elsewhere. Why was it Kabaddi? Who named this strange tag game? Why didn’t I know this stuff despite being in my school’s Kabaddi team? I needed to do research.

Sandhu touched the end, and I pounced on him. He wriggled out of me and ran over to his side. It was not a good start. 

It was my turn. I touched the line and slowly stood up, and ran to the other end. This part was always easy. The defenders would never be interested in getting the person running towards them. What a weird game? Again, my mind was elsewhere. I brought it back. 

Sandhu grabbed my wrist and twisted it. I cried out but kept saying the syllables and soon flicked my wrist away, running back to my side. I glanced at my wrist. It was red. Very soon it would be blue or purple. I walked over to Sarathi and Vijay watching from the sidelines. 

“Are you alright?”

“Shh, yes of course he is.”

I looked up at Sarathi, and he smiled and nodded reassuringly. Sarathi’s smile had never been unpleasant to me. At that moment, it felt infuriating. I didn’t want to see it. I turned back to face Sandhu coming my way. He smirked.

“You won’t be able to last a day.”

I forgot what happened for the next ninety minutes. 

~ ~ ~

“You fought so well, Pavan! It looked like there was a lightning bolt on stage, just striking at Sandhu here and there. Not even visible.” Vijay came up to me and held out his hand with a wide grin on his face. “Wonderful job!”

I ignored his hand and continued bandaging up my wrist. Accurate to my assumption, the twisted wrist had turned blue and the sight of it made me nauseous. I glanced at Sarathi, who watched something very intently on his phone.

“The full livestream goes for ninety minutes! Ninety minutes of non-stop one-v-one Kabaddi!” Sarathi watched his phone with intrigue, leaning his face on his wrist.

“Ooh, can you fast-forward? Go to the ending!” Vijay ran to him and huddled up next to him. Sarathi put his arm around Vijay’s shoulder and brought him in closer. The phone screen shone at their faces as they watched it with excitement.

I ripped another bandage strip and started wrapping up my ankle, which Sandhu had repeatedly kicked and stepped upon. I was praying for it to not be broken. I humphed looking at the two laugh at the screen.

“As if you two didn’t watch the whole match live.” 

Sarathi looked up at me and passed his phone to Vijay. 

“Pavan, don’t worry. You did great today!”

I stood up and limped over to the kitchen, scanning over what to eat. It was seven PM. My mother was helping my father at the temple, and she had kept some Jeera rice and Dhal curry out. I warmed the food up in the microwave and took the boxes out to the dining room. Vijay and Sarathi stood up and smiled at me.

“Are you going to have dinner now?”

I squinted at Vijay.

“No. I’m doing my homework.” 

I shook my head and spooned some rice and dhal into my plate and started eating it. Sarathi patted Vijay’s shoulder and gestured to leave. 

“We’ll be off then.”

I ignored them. I could hear Vijay asking Sarathi what was up with me as he got on to his cycle. 

“Let him rest. He has had a big day, and tomorrow is also going to be similar with the rematch.”

“Oh my, I couldn’t imagine fighting with Sandhu once, let alone two times consecutively. The brute.”

“What to do, we have to make sure Dharam wins.”

The sound of the cycle trailed off and I went back to my quiet dinner. 

Ninety minutes the match had lingered, and neither Sandhu nor I had missed a point. Sahni had decided to leave the tie for the day and rescheduled tomorrow, same time, same place, for a rematch.

I slowly ate my dinner, matching my chewing with the rhythm of the living room clock’s second ticks.

“I’ve never seen you eat so slowly.”

I looked up. My younger brother Pushan was finally out of his room. He leaned on the staircase and watched me eat with an amused smile. I sighed.

“Today was just a big day.”

“Republic Day, right.” He came and sat opposite me, taking a plate and holding it out. “I don’t know how much my friends and I raised, but we must have spoken to more than a hundred people!”

I nodded and spooned some rice and Dhal onto his plate. I wished I could have strolled through the suburbs with Dharam and our donation boxes. I wondered how many people he spoke to, and how much he raised. I for one would have definitely not gotten beaten up if I had gone with him.

“Did you go around with Ashwin?”

Ashwin was Dharam's younger brother. Just like Dharam and I, Ashwin and Pushan were inseparable best friends. Sometimes I would fight with Dharam because I wouldn't like the easygoing way he ignored bullies rather than fighting back, or for his excessive interest in academic matters which he would drag me along to (last summer, during the annual leave, we went to thirty six guest lectures! I was partially not looking forward to this leave as well). But Ashwin and Pushan would never even think of fighting with each other. Their beloved "Dharam Bhaiyya" was everything to them.

“Yes. We were talking about Dharam Bhaiyya standing for class president.”

I nodded, slowly chewing the rice. "Wh-what do you think about it?"

“Bhaiyya! Dharam Bhaiyya is your best friend! You shouldn’t have any doubt about it!” He spoke with his mouth full. 

I pondered. Dharam was my best friend. I remembered my pledge. Who did I make that promise to? No one, right. I can back down on that pledge anytime. Now, I didn’t feel like my friend Dharam’s presidential candidacy was worth me getting beaten up every day. 

I finished eating forty-five minutes later, washed my plate up, and went to bed.

~ ~ ~

The crowd had been bigger the next afternoon. The livestream seemed to have gone viral within our schools. I wondered if Sarathi and his following had anything to do with the rising popularity of the livestream matches. 

Sarathi was cycling us to his house. I leant on Vijay and tried to catch my breath. We passed a chemist shop, just about to close.

“Arre, stop, stop.” I patted at Vijay’s shoulder feebly, and Sarathi braked. I hurriedly got off and ran over to the store.

“Bhaiyya, can I have some bandage strips please?”

The shopkeeper looked me up and down and trudged back inside.

“Kids, always getting into fights at the most perfect times.” He murmured, and chucked a packet at me. I took out my wallet.

“Hurry, hurry! I have an evening show to go to!” He shook his head to himself, “They’ll already be playing the opening credits!”

I passed the money to him and ran out before he locked me in the store. 

Vijay held out a hand for me to use to get onto the cycle with. I stared at it.

“Actually, I’m fine. I think I’ll walk home from here.”

I started walking off. I could hear the cycle pedals and very soon Sarathi caught up with me. He started slow-cycling to match my pace.

“Pavan! I’ll drop you home, you don’t need to-”

I shook my head adamantly.

“I don’t want a lift. Especially not from you.”

Vijay gasped. 

“Pavan! Are you serious? Do you know who you are-”

“Arre! Of course I know!” I stopped and Sarathi put the brake as well, looking at me with knit eyebrows. Vijay bumped into Sarathi’s back due to the impact of the brake, and Sarathi silently got off the cycle. 

“Pavan, I understand what you’re-”

“No! You don’t understand, Sarathi! You can’t understand! You’re just extremely good at speaking mysteriously and constantly flirting with your cousin!”

Vijay gasped again. I clenched my jaw and resumed walking. A bit faster now. I could hear Sarathi get on his cycle and catch up to me again. 

“Look, Pavan. Hear me out. What happened now that you’re so against your best friend becoming class president?”

I stopped walking again. Tears started to form in my eyes. I closed my eyes, forcing them back inside. 

“What was the first thing Sandhu made me do in our match? Strip! I didn’t expect that! No one in my team fights with only their boxers.”

“You should have told Sandhu that.”

I scoffed. He tells me now?

“You tell me now, that I should have told Sandhu ‘no, I’m not fighting in my underwear’?”

Sarathi shrugged. 

“Do you expect me to tell you everything? I thought you were fine with it, as you’re a Kabaddi player.”

“I don’t want your excuses. You could have told me that, yet you didn’t.”

Sarathi shook his head with disbelief.

“I can’t read minds! I don’t know everything that’s going on in your mind, Pavan! You should have told me what you felt about it at least, and I would have then recommended for you to stand up to Sandhu, and tell him straightforwardly that you won’t be fighting in your boxers.”

I rolled my eyes and gazed at the dark street ahead. 

“Then don’t act like you can read minds if you can’t… Don’t act like you know everything, when you don’t.” I shrugged. “It’s so misleading.”

Sarathi walked up to me with a worried expression. 

“Tomorrow, I’ll convince Sandhu to let you fight in your-”

“What’s the use? The live streams are saved! My parents will find out about it somewhere, somehow and they will tear me to pieces.”

Sarathi blinked. 

“About you fighting in your underwear?”

“No! About me fighting in the first place.” I threw my hands up in despair. “Also, what did you ask him for? You asked for a private match, didn’t you? Why the heck was there that much of a crowd?”

Sarathi shrugged uncomfortably.

“I… I don’t know how. He must have invited everyone-”

“To come watch me getting beaten up?”

Sarathi squinted his eyes and edged a little closer. 

“Pavan, don’t you understand? You’re not losing. Sandhu isn’t winning either. You two are tying every match." He smiled reassuringly at me. My heart melted, but I ignored it and avoided looking at his face. "Did you forget what you were fighting for?” He grabbed me lightly by my shoulders and sat me down on his cycle. 

“You have been blessed with this great opportunity to showcase loyalty to the principles of Dharam. What have you dedicated your fight yesterday and today for? Your friend? Your physical, tangible, visible best friend who is always super nice to you and makes you feel guilty that you haven’t done anything valuable, in response to his kindness towards you?” 

I avoided Sarathi's kind gaze. I stared at his feet, each toe painted a different colour. Must have been the courtesy of Satya testing out her nail polish collection.

“You must dedicate your battle with Sandhu for the establishment of Dharam in the schools of this locality. When you have the ability, when you aren’t helpless against the sources of evil, you must fight. You are strong, and you have this Kabaddi match as the perfect opportunity to prove to all our classmates that Sandhu doesn’t deserve all the respect he gets, nor the position of class president.” He nodded encouragingly. “You can fight, so you must fight!”

He placed his hand on my shoulder and I shook it off abruptly, standing up abruptly. I shook my head.

"I'm never falling in the trap of your enchanting words again. I will never forget this terrible experience you made me go through." 

Sarathi sighed and my heart dropped. He was disappointed. I hurriedly walked off. Away from those two, I let the tears fall down my face as Vijay shouted behind me.

"If you break your friendship with Sarathi, Dharam would never take you back as his friend!"

I stopped in my tracks. I didn't want to lose Dharam as well. I gazed down at my bandaged wrist. I had started this righteous battle for Dharam only. 

I could hear Vijay get onto Sarathi’s cycle.

“Come on Sarathi. He doesn’t want you anymore.”

I turned around and saw Sarathi silently push Vijay off the front seat and get on it. He spotted me staring at them and smiled softly at me, offering the free back seat. 

I turned and resumed walking home.