Chapter 22: chapter 22

18That was the day when drinking water was usually supplied. The previous day, the rumour that poison was mixed in the drinking water had spread. Nobody was interested in taking water from the taps. The noses of the taps were sealed with cloth. Would the water come even then, people asked themselves!Religious riots were not new for the twin cities. When Hyderabad was shivering with the fear of riots, Secunderabad would be normal. The Tank Bund separated Secunderabad and Hyderabad. If one crossed the Tank Bund and reached Secunderabad, one could experience peace everything would be normal there. Many times, rumours were afoot to wreck that calmness. Most them would be about stabbing, murdering and throwing of bombs in some part of the city but the other parts of the city would be calm.In two or three places, cars with weapons were found on the roads. Some cars carried the sticker ‘PRESS’. But they carried weapons inside them. Such cars spread fear constantly.On those occasions selling and mortgaging of houses for throwaway prices in Hyderabad and the old town nearby were quite normal. Some Tamils, to escape the riot-ridden situation, threatened by dadas sold or mortgaged their houses thus.The cars carried not only the weapons but also played audio cassettes that carried the cries and the wails of people who tried to escape from the hands of murderers. When one tried to search in the direction the cries came from, one would find nothing. It was later found out that such sounds came from cars. The police had a tough time to ‘discover’ such cars. Such fears were the root cause of different types of the rumours.Whenever the curfew was relaxed, long queues appeared in front of video shops. The video cassettes were just then introduced. Only a few people owned video decks. When the curfew was relaxed for an hour people stood in long queues to get the essentials. As it was a time of riots, it became quite ordinary for four or five families to join together to get a deck on rent to see films. There was police too to regulate such queues. It was quite usual to have four or five cassettes on rent at a time. On the one side there were murders and riots; on the other side there were people who had rejected or ignored such happenings and went on in search of entertainment. An employee of our office who was living in the Regimental Bazaar area where I too was residing, did not come to work for four or five days. Everybody was enquiring me about his absence. I ‘managed’ the situation telling them that I also had not seen him. He, who might have gone out of Secunderabad might not have returned due to some problems. His colleagues were looking for his name in the “Dead List”.He was a Tamil. As I had no information about him, the people in the office who had a fault- finding nature, focussed their attention on me. When I found his house in the Regimental Bazaar, and entered it I found a large crowd there. I was afraid that the big crowd consisted of the relatives of my colleague, who had been caught in the Hyderabad riots and escaped from the hands of the murderers. I was afraid to see the darkness in their faces. My colleague came out of the house plunged in darkness. My arrival was considered an unwanted intrusion, I felt. But all were watching Kamal Hassan’s film Kalyanaraman!My Tamil friend told me that he was not doing well and of course it was his mistake that he did not inform the office. But I felt that he was lying. Even though I was Kamal Hassan’s fan, I was not in a mood to enjoy his film then, even though my friend compelled me.When I saw Kalyanaraman, after many days in a different situation, the previous situation occupied my mind and prevented me from enjoying the film.Due to the poisoning of drinking water, there was no supply of water for one week. That rumour pioneered our attempt to train ourselves to take drinking water that was many days old!