THE STORY OF JOSHUA {PART 1}

                                                   THE STORY OF JOSHUA  

                                                               {PART 1}

“Father, give me the strength to forgive and fight back the feeling of vengeance. Father, pray for me to achieve the peace of mind, for my patience is a very thin rope on which I walk,” said the man who sat in the confession box. For past twenty five years or so, he had followed the same routine of coming to the church and then spending a while in the confession box, repeating those same lines over and over again, before starting his day. As he walked out of the church after his daily prayer, he heard someone calling his name.

“Dr Mathews…Dr Joshua Mathews, Bhaiji has called in for you.”

Joshua turned and from his black rim glasses he could see two men running towards him. Joshua stopped for the men to catch up with him. Once they were near the audible distance, he said, “Tell Mr Goswami, I would be there in the afternoon.”

“What? Are you going to make Bhaiji wait…Hey Doctor, are you out of your mind, don’t  you know he is a big leader of our Hindu political party? How could you dare…” one of the men was furious at Joshua’s reply but before he could vent out all his rage, the other man, who was busy catching his breath, sharply transcended him, “My apologies Doctor sahab, please forgive him. He is new in the clan. If you want we can send the jeep to pick you in the afternoon.”

“No thanks you, I will come,” and without another word or a frown, Joshua walked away. The new boy in Bhaiji’s force was confused. He couldn’t do the math here. He was trained to portray in the likes to twin the angry Hulk to generate fear in the heart of his opponent and now, that he was perfectly role playing, he was abruptly cut short. He looked at his accomplice in utter bewilderment and said, “Now we have to fear this mouse too. Don’t you find the difference between our giant lithe and his five feet six inches frame, our abs and his lanky physique and wrinkled phizog?”

“Shut up, just shut up. If Bhaiji comes to know about it, he is going to bury you alive. Bhaiji is very fond of this doctor and Joshua has been his doctor since the very day Bhaiji needed a doctor. There alliances run over a decade or so,” reprimanded the other man.

“But can’t you see this oldie taking undue advantage of Bhaiji veneration for him. Look at his attitude.”

“That’s what Bhaiji likes about him, his strength of character. In this fake world around Bhaiji where everybody tries to impress him with flattery; it is this Doctor who face him fearlessly with blunt honesty but still being polite. And moreover he is a busy doctor. Can’t you see in the six kilometer radius, he is the only doctor practicing in this village? He has patients lined up to see at his clinic.”

“But he could have made an exception to come and see Bhaiji first and then went along with his day…”

“Until and unless it’s an unavoidable emergency, he will never break his routine. That’s what Joshua is. He will come to the church first, walk to the grave yard and finally to his nursing home.”

“Graveyard?”

“Yes, his family is buried there, his wife and his son. I don’t know much about it but people say that they died very young, whether it was an accident or natural calamity, no one knows. Doctor is a very introvert man and speaks only when necessary. No one really knows his real story. But he seems to be a nice man, always helping people, sometimes going absolutely out of his way too. He is very much respected here.”

“Ah! Why doesn’t Bhaiji call another experienced doctor that too, a Hindu one from the city, when this one is busy being Messiah? And as matter of fact, why does Bhaiji need a doctor, he seems perfectly fit to me? He wrestles the whole day in mud. Even at the age of 40, he is more energetic than all of us combined.”

“Though Bhaiji is a superman but beneath all that iron and steel, his nerves are rusting away. Every six months he gets himself vitamin B12 shots for twenty to thirty days. According to Bhaiji, this doctor has magical hands and he feels no pain when being injected by him. What so ever be the reason, Bhaji really adores his doctor. If given an opportunity, he could put this doctor in a locket and hang him in his neck like his lucky charm.”

“What rubbish Yadav, my gut feeling says, we can’t trust this Christian. One day he would lead to our doom.”

“Stop running the wild horses of your mind, Raftar, I don’t have an entire day to debate you over the relationship of Bhaiji and the doctor. We have to rush back to be beside Bhaiji, we are his bodyguards. Elections are on head, there are various strategies which we have to give our contribution to. Come let’s go.”

In afternoon when Joshua went to the Haveli of Pitamber Goswami, the big boss of big Hindu party, he laid there on the cot with his hired servility massaging him. As soon as he saw his doctor, entering his door, he immediately stood up giving him open arm welcome. Joshua never voted in for such kind of physical contacts but he knew it is impossible for his slinky body structure to slip out of the strong grip of Bhaiji’s athletic body type.

“Hey Josh, it’s again that time of the year that we meet. What shall I say; I really look forward to meeting you. I am the only person on this planet who feels happy to meet his doctor.”

“Let’s get back to business. If you please, lie down Mr Goswami.”

“Oh! Ramji! Why are you so dry, Josh? Don’t you ever smile; just try fake smiling at least.”

“It’s Joshua; my name is Joshua not Josh, Mr Goswami….”

“It’s Bhaiji for all too not Mr Goswami. Since you don’t change your ways, why do you expect me to change mine and start calling you what you want me to call you?” said Bhaiji and started laughing. Joshua never participated in such kind of frivolity but instead waited for him to calm down and to lie prone on the cot so that he could complete his unfinished work and get back to his pending work. Once he was through he got up to move to his favorite place in Pitamber’s Haveli, the library. The reason why he agreed for the home visits for Bhaiji in first place. He got the free pass to this grand collection of wisdom and had liberty to get himself as many books as he wanted to from the shelf and there was never any time limit put on him on the return of those books. “Josh, I heard you are reading Bhagvad Gita and Chanakya’s arthashastra, all the ancient Hindu literature. Is that true?”

“Yes” came the prompt answer. Joshua being man of few words was never inclined for big chit-chat therefore he preferred being monosyllabic in his endeavors. Since there year’s long acquaintanceship had made Bhaiji well aware of this fact, therefore without any further delay he let him go to love of his life, the books. Now this was going to be the routine that Joshua would be following for next twenty or thirty days like always. But this time, destiny had some hidden un-played card that would be changing the course of the life of Joshua. He was ten days old in this house visit that, that particular day he stayed long in the library, probably enchanted by the words of the book he was reading that he lost the tap of the time. But once that realization struck him, he rushed out. His exit path ran through the central hall and as always he took it only to find a big official meeting going on in that premises, presided by the bigwigs of that Hindu party. It was some kind of pre-election strategy forming, assembly at Bhaiji Haveli. Joshua thought to take a detour, avoid disturbing the seriousness of the environment in the central hall but then suddenly he heard something that made him freeze to his very grounds.

“So Bhiaji you want us to kill them, the children too…”

“Yes,” came as the paradoxically simple answer.

“You are very smart Bhaiji, you are really qualified in the art to win an election. It will be our hunt down and blame would be put on these minorities clique and then when the things get pretty heated up between these two communities, we will bake our bacon over it. It’s a win-win for us.”

“Riots are always the key integrant to win an election and it happens to be my field of expertise. I have done it in the past and I could do it now too. You see, the mass is collection of foolishly emotional people who rate their egotism and hatred above their basic problems of poverty, hunger, education, housing etc. This weakness of theirs happens to be the icing of the cake for politicians like us. Therefore it leaves no scope of any mistake; let’s discuss the intricate details of the plan again. After all it’s the key to our walk on the moon, figuratively speaking.” said Bhaiji. And as per his instruction their riot plan was discussed again in convoluted details. The people in the central hall were still unaware of the fact that there was someone else beside them making mental notes of their nefarious intention.

That very evening, instead of going back to his clinical duties, Joshua went straight to the police station divulging everything what he witnessed. He requested the inspector to work fast to save this bloody massacre. The men in uniform assured him that they would take the matter with utmost seriousness and would work diligently on it. Next afternoon when Joshua went to the Haveli for his daily visit, he could feel the hostility in the environment especially in the eye of the new recruit in Bhaiji’s personal guards. Joshua could see his pulsating vein on the forehead and his nostrils puffing out like an angry buffalo. He ignored him and walked unperturbed to do his needful duty of injecting Bhaiji. He was happy that police have intervened to prevent those bloody murders of the innocents. But his happiness was short lived as he found, yesterday’s authoritative inspector of police station, massaging Bhaji’s feet. That very moment he knew that he blew his cover for nothing.

Still unflinchingly he completed his doctor’s duty and was about to pack up his stuff to go that Bhaiji jumped out of his patent royal cot and stood in front of him like a mountain and said, “That’s why I like you, you are fearless. I wish if quarter of my men were like you, I would have been ruling this world. But it is unfortunate that you play for the other team and you went behind my back to rat me out. Tell me, who has purchased your loyalty? If I would have known that it was in the market for sale, I would have definitely made a good offer?”

“I have no interest in picking sides. What’s wrong is, wrong and I did what I have to do.” Joshua came straight forward.

“Oh! Yes Ramji, how could I forget you are the Good Samaritan with twenty four caret gold standards? I am sorry to inform you, you just flunked. This is politics and you have to play dirty. It’s the first rule of the game. There is nothing much you could do about it expect close your eye to it. Its divide and rule, I am just following Chanakya’s neeti.”

“That’s the strategy to deal with the enemies not with your own people. If you have read Chanakya’s neeti properly you would know the king is just a servant to his kingdom and his only duty is to serve his people and bring prosperity to his nation. But on contrary you are playing a bloody game.” It was first time ever Bhaiji could hear Joshua using so many words to convey his thoughts.

“I think these books in my library are ruining you. For now onwards you are prohibited to go there. And if few of the men are sacrificing their lives for their king, it’s their good fortune, a God given golden opportunity to go to heaven.”

“You are murdering few and then making the rest to kill each other. It’s inhumane.”

“Josh, what’s the matter with you? Can’t you shut up? If you fear about your community, you have my words; your people would be left unharmed. Just ask all of them to wear crosses in their neck as a signal for us.”

“Every human life is sacred and you have no right….”

“For Ramji sake’s shut up Josh. I really like you and that’s why listening to all your crap here. But that’s my threshold, I can’t take it anymore. I told you, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill my dream and I won’t spare anyone coming between it, even if it’s you.”

“And I will do everything to stop you....”

“So what are you going to do Josh, bring AK47 and kill me. Because that’s the only way you can stop me. But I know you can’t do it, because you have no balls.”  And then Bhaiji turned towards his new recruit, “Hey Raftar, you will shadow Josh day and night. I don’t want him to repeat this silly mistake again because I will hate to lose him.”

Joshua knew he couldn’t talk Bhaiji out of his massacre plan but at the same time he couldn’t sit, warming his hands. He had to do something but the question was, what and how. And now being under constant surveillance his task has became even more difficult. Time was skipping away like sand between his fingers.

The stress of being the sitting duck was taking a toll on Joshua. He couldn’t concentrate in his daily chores. He desperately needed answers and he could find none. He needed peace therefore he took a break from his clinic duties and went to attend the evening mass at the church. The first day of Raftar’s follow-up trail and he had to go to the church. The very thought of stepping in church was sickening for his orthodox bigotry Hindu mind set. But how could he defy his master’s order. When he was able to synchronizing his loo breaks with that of Joshua, going to church wouldbe difficult not impossible.

After the choir, reverend took the rostrum and started preaching. “When one finds the higher purpose of his living event the humble soul can conquer invincible heights. It’s then the whole sole duty of God is to lead you there. And it could be best exemplified by Joshua, who led Israelites from the slavery of Egypt to the promise land by winning the battle of Jericho. God fought for him, for he hurled huge hailstones from the sky and killed more Canaanites than those slaughtered by Joshua’s army. And in one of such battle, when Joshua ordered sun and moon to hold still, God obeyed….‘There was no day like that before it or after it, that the Yahweh hearkened unto the voice of a man. For the Yahweh fought for Israel.’reference from Joshua 10:14…”

“I hope you are not getting any ideas thinking yourself to be that Joshua from history book. Don’t even think to evoke your traits of foolish chivalry.” Rafter whispered in Joshua’s ear. Joshua didn’t react; he kept listening to the reverend. The circumstances that surrounded him, the only solace he found was in his work, therefore Joshua burned himself with an extra load and he took the additional duty of serving as Pathologist in the Zila’s health center, in his offbeat hours.

TO BE CONTINUED.....