chapter 10

    After Anant left for his office early in the morning, Chetana used to wait the whole day for him to arrive in the evening after work. It gave her immense pleasure in obliging to his demands of his favorite dishes, taking care of all his needs, sharing his worries, dreams and aspirations and caring for him. Her world had shrunken around Anant. A year later, Richa was born.      When Anant held his newborn daughter for the first time in his arms, Chetana could see tears brimming in his eyes. She felt as if her toiling for those 10 long months and writhing in pain for hours in the labor room were worth it when she saw happiness flowing out in the form of tears from the eyes of the man she was madly in love with. The two of them used to hold the hands of little Richa from either side and teach her how to walk during the evenings they spent on the beach.        The waves used to make little Richa exuberant and she used to run towards the sea to catch them until she was caught by her parents and taken back to the beach. Since then, Chetana has selflessly dedicated her life to her husband and daughter. She had always kept their wishes and happiness above her own. She had remained so lost in them for the years that followed that she had almost lost her own individuality. It was impossible for her to think of having an existence without them.  *      * GOA, Present Day… ‘The pillars that were holding my world together are drifting apart from me.’Chetana sighed as the thought crossed her mind.She couldn’t believe that the light of love that she had seen in Anant’s eyes would be so easily be eclipsed by another woman’s presence in his life. And for Richa, her mother was nothing but a hurdle in her way of leading an independent life. She felt as if she was left alone in the world. A tear silently slid down her cheek; it felt as if her life had zeroed down to nothing but a long stretch of darkness. Suddenly her attention was diverted by the tinkling sound of laughter and she turned to see who it was.    At a distance of a few feet from her, a small group of children was sitting on the sand, smiling at a man who sat on a beach chair under a colourful umbrella. He was dressed in a flowery shirt and a pair of navy blue shorts with a large, round hat over his head. He was reading to the children from a book. The children were wearing old and tattered clothes and looked like street urchins.       All of them were about 5 years of age. They were holding pencils in their hands and had placed their notebooks on their laps. It seemed to Chetana as if the man was taking some classes for them. She turned to her side and looked curiously at them. “I taught you yesterday how to write the alphabet ‘A’, isn’t it?” The man folded his book and placed it on his lap. “It is the first letter in the English alphabet. Now, dear children, listen carefully and say after me, ‘A’ for ‘apple’. Come, say it loud, ‘A’ for apple.”The children repeated his words and the silence of the beach was replaced by the roar of their voices.“Excuse me, sir,” one of the pupils raised his hand as the roar subsided, “may I ask you a doubt?”“Yes, Peter.” There was exuberance in the man’s voice, as he took in the enthusiasm on the faces of his students. “What do you want to know?”“Why do we always say ‘A’ for ‘apple’?” Peter asked earnestly, “Why don’t we use any other fruit or thing that begins with ‘A’ instead of apple?” Chetana felt like giggling when she listened to the query. But she swallowed it quickly and looked avidly at the helpless man who was bound to answer it. She remembered the days when her daughter Richa was in kindergarten and used to ask her such ‘seemingly innocent but difficult to answer’ questions. She was eager to know how this man was going to tackle the situation. The man smiled sheepishly at the boy and then scratched his head for a while.“It’s because apple played a significant part in the development of science.” The man flashed his teeth as he came up with a brilliant theory.“And what is that, sir?” another one among the students asked as they were in no mood to let their teacher walk away that easily.“You must have heard of the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Didn’t I tell you about him?”“Yes, sir,” Peter who was busy scribbling something on the sand, abruptly raised his head and said, “he was the inventor of the rule that if you hit someone he will definitely hit you back!”“Which idiot told you so?” The man frowned.“You did, sir.” Peter’s jaws split into a naughty grin.“What rubbish?”“Didn’t you tell us the other day that every action has an equal and opposite reaction? And then you explained it with an example that if you hit a guy he will definitely hit you back.” Peter diligently presented the details in his teacher’s own words.“Oh, yes…” The man looked around furtively with a pale face to see whether anybody was listening to his ‘words of wisdom’. “Well, it’s called Newton’s third law of motion which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Now, let’s come back to the point. It was Sir Newton who discovered the gravitational force of the earth. There is an interesting story behind the discovery.”“Yeah, we want to listen to the story!” all the students yelled in chorus.“Okay, now calm down.” The man placed a finger on his lips, signalling the kids to remain silent. “One day, Newton was sitting in his garden when an apple fell on his head. This made him wonder why things always fall down towards the earth. Is there any force that pulls them down? And that’s how he stumbled upon the idea of the earth’s gravitational pull.”“Sir?” A little boy among the group raised his hand.“Yes, Deepu?” The man cleared his throat as he prepared himself to face another ordeal through fire.“What fell on your head that made you come up with the idea of teaching us?”