Unable to appeal to the police for help-the cops had been paid to maintain a discreet myopia-the slum-dwellers banded together to defend themselves. Qasim Ali formed brigades of children who patrolled the perimeter of the slum as lookouts, and several platoons of strong, young men to escort those who visited the markets.
Clashes had already occurred between our young men and the hired thugs. We all knew that, when the monsoon came, there would be more and greater violence. Tensions ran high. Still, the war of the shopkeepers didn't dispirit the slum-dwellers. On the contrary, the shopkeepers within the slum experienced a surge of popularity. They became demi-heroes, and were moved to respond with special sales, reduced prices, and a carnival atmosphere.
The ghetto was a living organism: to counter external threats, it responded with the antibodies of courage, solidarity, and that desperate, magnificent love we usually call the survival instinct. If the slum failed, there was nowhere and nothing else.
One of the young men who'd been injured in an attack on our supply lines was a laborer on the construction site beside the slum. His name was Naresh. He was nineteen years old. It was his voice, and a confident rapping on the open door of my hut, which scattered the brief, still solitude that I'd found when my friends and neighbours had followed Kano and his bear-handlers from the slum.
Without waiting for me to reply, Naresh stepped into the hut and greeted me.
"Hello, Linbaba," he greeted me, in English. "You have been hugging it bears, everyone says."
"Hello, Naresh. How's your arm? You want me to take a look at it?"
"If you have time, yes," he answered, switching to Marathi, his native tongue. "I took a break from work, and I have to return in fifteen or twenty minutes. I can come back another time if you are busy."
"No, now is okay. Come and sit down, and we'll have a look."
Naresh had been slashed on the upper arm with a barber's straight razor. The cut wasn't deep, and it should've healed quickly with no more than a wrap of bandage. The unclean humidity of his working conditions, however, accelerated the risk of infection.
The bandage I'd placed on his arm just two days before was filthy and soaked with sweat. I removed it, and stored the soiled dressing in a plastic bag for disposal later in one of the communal fires.
The wound was beginning to knit well enough, but it was an angry red, with some flares of yellowish-white. Khaderbhai's lepers had supplied me with a ten-litre container of surgical disinfectant.
I used it to wash my hands and then cleansed the wound, roughly scraping at it until there was no trace of the white infection.
It must've been tender, but Naresh endured the pain expressionlessly. When it was dry, I squeezed antibiotic powder into the crease of the cut and applied a fresh gauze dressing and bandage.
"Prabaker tells me you had a narrow escape from the police the other night, Naresh," I said as I worked, stumbling along in my broken Marathi.
"Prabaker has a disappointing habit of telling everybody the truth," Naresh frowned.
"You're telling me," I answered quickly, and we both laughed.
Like most of the Maharashtrians, Naresh was happy that I tried to learn his language, and like most of them he spoke slowly and very precisely, encouraging me to understand. There were no parallels between Marathi and English, it seemed to me: none of the similarities and famil- iar words that were shared by English and German, for example, or English and Italian. Yet Marathi was an easy language to learn because the people of Maharashtra were thrilled that I wanted to learn it, and they were very eager to teach.
"If you keep stealing with Aseef and his gang," I said, more seriously, "you're going to get caught."
"I know that, but I hope not. I hope the Enlightened One is on my side. It's for my sister. I pray that no harm will come to me, you see, because I am not stealing for myself, but for my sister.
She will be married soon, and there is not enough to pay the promised dowry. It is my responsibility. I am the oldest son."
