Know No Boundaries: Where Do I Belong? Does Anything Belong to Me?

By Lateral Collateral

It is neither a thesis, nor it is a novel,
Not it is a fantasy, not even a fairy tale.

With an event of mass disobedience we start,
No shot is fired, no one is physically hurt.
On a sunny day, at every airport of the world,
People queue up for check-in with no visa in hand.
One and all, in all the classes economy, first or business,
No one had a visa; world citizenship each like to harness.

No international flight takes off
From Wellington, where the day starts;
From other airports of New Zealand too,
No other plane departs.

Nowhere in the world, from any airport,
Took off any International flight.
Following day was no different,
And the following night.
All airlines give up,
No end of the tunnel, no ushering light.

The main suspect behind these events was John.
Johns identity is however very clear;
To all passengers he is very dear.
For questioning his role in mass disobedience,
Arrested was John, and served punishing sentence.
He was punished to undergo forensic probes,
For extracting his memoir and his hopes,
To get the events that led him to his roles,
To his visions to cross boundary ropes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Dec 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781482897388

Lateral Collateral

Lateral is an entity of one planet, a person of no known gender. We don’t have a pronoun in our grammar to suit Lateral’s gender. We can’t use ‘he’ or ‘she’, so we shall use the pronoun ‘phe’; objective case of ‘phe’ is ‘phim’; ‘phes’ means – of or relating to phim, especially as possessor. Lateral wanted to know about the world, especially about the people living on the world. Phe doesn’t understand the languages, the religions, the rules and regulations of this world. It is a daunting task to know about so many people living on this world, so phe probed into the brain of one citizen of the world to extract the memoirs of his life. This citizen of the world is John George; this book is about how John led his life in this world with some more people of this world. Please excuse Lateral for phes lack of knowledge about the languages, the religions, the rules and regulations of this world. Phe doesn’t know what we call obscene or illegal. Please listen to phim and check if phe makes any sense to you. "A gripping narration of events and storytelling. It takes one's imagination to the zenith. The author Lateral indeed provokes lateral thinking and one can dream about such worlds which know no boundaries. Written in such fluidity and simple language that the reader would be glued to the 600 odd pages." Dr. Suven Sarkar, Retired General Medical Practitioner, Grimsby, UK

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Lateral Collateral.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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OUR SEARCH FOR

WHERE WE BELONG

PREFACE

IMAGINE — ONE WORLD

FORENSIC PROBES INTO JOHN’S MEMOIRS

FROM THE FIRST WORLD OF THE JOURNEY

THE JOURNEY STARTS

SCHOOL DAYS OF JOHN

NORTON STARTS REBELLION FOR THE WORLD

A STRANGER ON THE ROAD

JOHN’S SIBLINGS GET MARRIED ONE BY ONE

JOHN GETS MARRIED

SUDDEN DEMISE OF MARTINA

JOHN MOVES TO ANYSNAG

LAST DAYS OF SULLIVAN

LAST YEAR BEFORE MOVE TO ANOTHER WORLD: KANADIA

TO THE SECOND WORLD OF THE JOURNEY

FIRST TWO WEEKS AT UTOPIA TERRITORY

DEANNA & JEWEL ARRIVE

MOVE TO AWTOTOM WITH A NEW BANK JOB

NEW FLAT & CAR AT AWTOTOM

CLOSE FRIENDS AT AWTOTOM

A WEEK WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S SPOUSE

BACK TO ONE’S LEGAL SPOUSE

JEREMY & PATRICIA VISIT AWTOTOM

JOHN & DEANNA BUY AN APARTMENT AT PORT VICTORIA

MOVE TO A NEW HOUSE IN AWTOTOM

JOHN GOT HIT BY A CAR

JEWEL GRADUATES & DEVELOPS HER OWN VIEWS & VALUES

PATRICIA PASSES AWAY AT PORT VICTORIA

A YEAR WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S SPOUSE

THE NEW MILLENNIUM FOR JOHN

THE YEAR OF JEWEL & RICKY’S WEDDING

JOHN WORKS IN BANKS WORLDWIDE; JEREMY PASSES AWAY

JOHN RETURNS TO AWTOTOM

CATCH UP WITH ADELINE

PAYING GUEST ACCOMMODATION FOR BISSEN

TO THE THIRD WORLD OF THE JOURNEY

ONE WORLD — ONE ORGANISATION

THE LAST CHAPTER? PROLOGUE?

ENDNOTES

The concept of Oneness — understanding the ultimate reality of human beings all over the world is explored via the life of one citizen John and his strife for One World — One Family. The plea for equitable distribution of resources irrespective of religion and wealth, prosperity and health, age, sex, marital status, breadth of knowledge and wisdom is addressed —

To

Those who decide how we should live in the society, where we belong and what belongs to us

And to

Those who live in these societies, who love to sacrifice themselves for their love but hate to get exploited at the whims of the privileged few.

This is a very different and daring way to celebrate the vision of Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth anniversary. Let’s pray — Swami will forgive us for exposing the ugliness we like to eradicate.

The Author Lateral Collateral

Lateral is an entity of one planet, a person of no known gender. We don’t have a pronoun in our grammar to suit Lateral’s gender. We can’t use ‘he’ or ‘she’, so we shall use the pronoun ‘phe’; objective case of ‘phe’ is ‘phim’; ‘phes’ means — of or relating to phim, especially as possessor.

Lateral wanted to know about the world, especially about the people living on the world. Phe doesn’t understand the languages, the religions, the rules and regulations of this world. It is a daunting task to know about so many people living on this world, so phe probed into the brain of one citizen of the world to extract the memoirs of his life. This citizen of the world is John George; this book is about how John led his life in this world with some more people of this world.

Please excuse Lateral for phes lack of knowledge about the languages, the religions, the rules and regulations of this world. Phe doesn’t know what we call obscene or illegal. Please listen to phim and check if phe makes any sense to you.

The Artist — Mrinal Kanti Ghosh

This book is illustrated by Mrinal, an artist from this planet. He is a Foundry Engineer and maintains a laboratory for researching on how the entities of this planet should interact to make this planet a better place to live in. He is a busy man, occupied with implementation of foundry projects, authoring poems and stories, painting pictures on walls and magazines; he couldn’t get time to read the entire works of Lateral; please don’t hold him responsible for the work of a person of another planet; he has taken a glimpse of a few events and designed the front cover, and a few other illustrations. Lateral feels indebted to him, for making phes book picturesque.

Pitch

John is arrested for organising mass disobedience of visa regulations at every international airport. Forensic probes into John’s memoirs discovered how John developed the vision of moving across all boundaries.

Many voices, pictures and videos are extracted from John’s memory — conscious, sub-conscious, even unconscious. Investigators weren’t sure whether or not the events, recorded in John’s memory did really happen.

Apparently, young John started following all rules and regulations of his society and his country; he was oblivious about the world beyond. His goals were to get a good job, a good wife and a happy married life thereafter. He got a good degree and a good job. Parents got him married to a suitable girl — Deanna.

Deanna had friends in many men and women, for whom she would do anything, often taking advantage of her marital status and John’s time and resources. Often she made herself sexually available to male friends while she hated John’s proximity. She remained married primarily for his resources and protection. John couldn’t afford the legal battle for divorce. He tried to get jobs at remote cities, but that did not help. Either Deanna lived with her parents or her relatives crowded John’s place.

Desperate John planned to leave the country for a better life elsewhere in the world; Deanna tried hard to dissuade John who was determined to try his luck across country boundaries, even without Deanna. Deanna and her parents could read John’s mind and she consented to leave the country with John.

Situations were marginally better in the new country; Deanna never treated John as her beloved husband. John looked around and found that he was not alone; most persons have never loved their spouses, but enjoyed their marital status. John developed a vision for having one big family in the entire world, so that no person is exploited by the legal spouse — Know No Country Boundaries — Know No Family Boundaries.

PREFACE

In this book, you would get memoirs of one citizen of the world, John George. The memoirs tell stories of a few people in three different worlds; some of these stories are sexually sensitive; in a few so called obscene scenes John’s memoirs have appreciated natural beauty as well as ugliness without any cover-up; real life stories are no different.

John sincerely wished, he empathised with each entity of this novel and discovered the Oneness in them. They are all very common men and women; none of them has done any exemplary work to make this world a bit different, none has made any great sacrifice for the people they loved, nor could anyone kill and rob others to amass wealth for his or her personal use. They all lived by the rules and regulations of the world they lived in, they all responded to the opportunities and threats of their land. They all wanted to be loved by someone; they were all looking for someone they could love. In some world, people cannot live if not loved by at least a few; life has no meaning without love. In some other worlds, love is not a necessity, life has lots to offer even when you cannot win the scarce love. People are made to be loved and things are made to be used; but more often things are loved and people are used.

One motivation for publishing this novel is telling John’s stories, which often near relatives are not prepared to listen to. They are often brainwashed and consider it would be a sin if they listen to these stories. Had John said that God had told him these stories, they would probably listen; John couldn’t tell a lie, because John no longer believes in God; he believes — people around him can do much more than God could; we can’t do without the help from the people whichever world we might live in. When someone says, ‘I shall pray to God for you’, often it is meant ‘We have given up on you, hopeless fellow!’

The three worlds, we would talk about here, are really not on different planets. A country in a particular decade could be a world different from the same country in another decade. In the same decade, a country in the developed world could be a world different from another country in the developing world. The same country in the same decade could move into a different world, if we could change rules and regulations — opportunities and threats that govern the country.

IMAGINE — ONE WORLD

1%20Imagine%20One%20World.jpg

History was created at Wellington airport on the 8th August. The first international flight of the day was to depart at 6am for Philadelphia; four check-in counters for economy class and two for business/first class opened at 2:30am so that passengers could start checking in 3 hours prior to the departure. Prospective passengers queued up. 4 passengers were asked to come forward to the 4 economy class counters and two business class counters ushered two business class passengers.

‘Sir, your ticket and passport please’, said the Airways staff in the first check-in counter. The passenger handed over the documents. The Airways staff looked at the e-ticket and said, ‘so you’re travelling to Philadelphia’, then she looked into the passport, matched the face of the passenger with the photo of the passport; it was alright; then she turned the pages of the passport to find the visa to US; there was none.

‘I don’t find your visa to US; I can’t check you in. Do you have the visa in your old passport? If yes, please show me that passport.’

‘I don’t need any visa to US; I am a citizen of the World.’ The passenger replied.

‘No, Sir.’ The Airways staff replied, ‘You are a New Zealand citizen, I can’t let you board the plane without the visa. Do you have any luggage to check in?’

‘No; I’ve only this cabin bag.’ The passenger replied.

‘Please stand aside and let the next passenger come forward.’ Said the staff and glanced at the other check-in counters. She was overwhelmed as she heard the same words from five other check-in staff.

None of these passengers had any luggage to be checked in; each was carrying only a cabin baggage. None of them had US visa stamped in the passport. None of them stood aside to let the next passenger come forward. The airport staff looked at the queue of passengers; none of them were carrying any big bags to check in; as if all of them had come here for a bus ride.

In each counter, the passenger showed the air ticket and passport, but no visa for US. One of the Airways staff phoned their boss to ask for instructions. The boss of the Airways was at a loss; he asked the top boss of Wellington airport. Security forces were mobilised to arrest the passengers who refused to move from the check-in counter unless boarding passes were issued. Six passengers were arrested, moved the next six passengers to the check-in counters; none of these passengers had visas attached to their passports; none agreed to step aside to let the next passengers come forward; so they were all arrested.

Next six passengers moved to check-in counters; none of them had visas attached to passports, none of them agreed to step aside to let the next passengers come forward; so they were arrested as well.

This continued till all 215 prospective passengers were arrested; no boarding pass was issued, no luggage was checked in.

Baggage handlers got worried when no luggage was passed to them for two hours after the start of check-in. They came to see what was happening at the check-in counters. The flight crew was sent messages about delay in boarding the passengers for the flight; they should wait for the next message before starting for the airport. The flight was cancelled and all prospective passengers arrested.

The next flight to leave Wellington Airport had the same fate, as all the passengers booked for the flight appeared without any visa in the passport. The flight after that had the same fate, and all the remaining flights of the day weren’t any different. No international flights took off from Wellington on that day. Soon the news was received from other airports of New Zealand — Auckland, Christchurch and so on. No international flight has departed from New Zealand.

Hours later same sets of events started in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and other airports. Norton had set up his network in every country of the world and mobilised enough people to buy all tickets for all flights supposed to leave the airports on that day. All the tickets were brought on credit cards, along with travel insurance; Norton checked that that insurance company would pay the compensation if the flight hadn’t taken off at the scheduled hour and the passenger was not allocated a boarding pass; there was no clause for passenger’s inability to get the visa in time, because the ticket was issued.

This situation made an extra-ordinary impact for the aviation industry, the insurance companies, the airport staff, the airport security, even the prisons of the country. Most airlines checked their booking for the next weeks and found that the passengers with very similar names were supposed to fly in the forthcoming flights. One emergency meeting was convened by United Nations to address the plea of the aviation industry that had no other options but to let people fly without adequate visas. But the countries at the destination of the flights would have a big problem if the passengers arrive without adequate visas. But people all over the world wanted to fly without any visa; at least the bookings for next few days suggested that, what should United Nations decide now? Some wise men of United Nations could easily see the popularity of Norton over the social media; they thought Norton should be arrested and questioned to find out how things are going and how these could controlled. But how one would arrest Norton? Many persons were claiming to be Norton, millions of Norton-s are scattered all over the world; as if everyone in the world is a Norton. Developed countries of United Nations opined that all passengers involved in these cancelled flights were terrorists, violators of the established visa regulations. They had been already arrested and questioned; two names emerged from this extensive questioning: one is Norton and the other is John. Norton couldn’t be arrested, as the security forces couldn’t identify the real Norton from millions of so-called Norton-s. John was arrested for questioning.

Norton considered there should be a World Anthem to suit the citizens of the world; he thought of seeking permission for using Imagine Lyrics of John Lennon. He dreamed that the citizens all over the world danced to the tune of IMAGINE:

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too’

FORENSIC PROBES INTO JOHN’S MEMOIRS

2%20Forensic%20Probes%20into%20John%27s%20Memoirs.jpg

John is arrested for questioning on his role in mass disobedience of visa regulations all over the world. Forensic sciences and technologies are very advanced now-a-days. John, though arrested for instigating terrorist activities, has not been subjected to any third degree torture; instead forensic probes have been deployed to extract John’s memoirs to find out how John lived his life and developed the vision of moving across all boundaries in life.

Forensic probes discover many voices, pictures and videos from John’s memory — conscious, subconscious and even unconscious. In the next few chapters, Collateral has put some structure to the probe findings — identified each chapter with a picture, narrated the videos in words and voices in form of poems. Collateral is not sure whether or not any of the events, recorded in John’s memory did really take place; still they resemble real life stories.

The concept of the first world, the second world and the third world in John’s memoir is different from the prevalent perception of many in the developed world. Here the first world is the world where a common man John started his journey of life, where rules and rigours restricted his natural development. Next he migrated to his second world where some of the sacred beliefs, he cherished in his heart were not much relevant; he challenged the rules and rigours imposed on him in the previous world, some rules imposed even by his own beliefs. From here he envisaged his third world, the world which spans over the physical world and beyond, the world where all countries merge into One World that does not restrict natural development of any citizen by rules and regulations.

Rules and restrictions of John’s first world were not relevant any more, as his first world had already transformed into the second world. The third world described in this novel still remained a vision to John, yet he arrived there mentally and spiritually along with a few more who shared his vision of One World. John faced many conflicts that pitted his conscience against prevailing laws or accepted standards of conduct; the conscience alone was the true guide that helped him to choose what to do.

The cities, mentioned in John’s memoir, may not resemble at all to the cities, referred by those city names. They may not be even in the continents they should have belonged to. Some events might not have happened in real life; those who interpreted John’s memoir deducted those events from the evidences found in John’s memoir. Names of the persons, as well, are different from their real names. Please accept the disclaimer for any reflections made on any persons, cities and countries. Words and thoughts, shared in this novel, are targeted to each and every person of this world, irrespective of religion and wealth, prosperity and health, age, sex and breadth of knowledge and wisdom.

In this book, John’s memoir is organised into:

• From The First World Of The Journey,

• To The Second World Of The Journey,

• To The Third World Of The Journey.

In ‘The Journey Starts’, the country celebrates oneness after achieving independence, while John’s family is starved.

‘School Days of John’ explores childhood visions. John’s main anchor was his family; his brother Jack was the messenger from the bigger world.

‘Norton Starts Rebellion for the World’ reveals John’s admiration for Norton. Later, when John organised mass disobedience Norton was there by his side, not alone, but with many Nortons all over the world.

‘A stranger on the road’ hinges heavily on the event of John’s sharing his vision with a woman, in the best of their times — in their post-teen days.

‘John’s Siblings get married One by One’ meant a lot in John’s dream of setting up his own, with the blessings of his seniors.

‘John gets married’ shows that even though his sisters had not been happily married, John thought with a brilliant academic and professional career he had better prospects of a successful marital relationship.

The news of ‘Sudden demise of Martina’ was received on phone from Jack, when John, Deanna and Jewel were enjoying in a party. The urge of bringing up their daughter Jewel in the remote area, brought John and Deanna close together, helping each other to survive.

‘John Moves to Anysnag’ shows how realisation of Oneness was trickling down into John’s vision during his stay in the serene environment of Blackgod and how he accepted the busy city life for proximity to his paternal family.

‘Last Days of Sullivan’ resonates the voice from the burning pyre of his father Sullivan — ‘You’ve toiled hard for months, John. Now relax a bit; sit by me, I’ll pat on your eyelids and make you sleep’. The last traces of Sullivan were being burnt away in form of smoke, leaving the memories of John’s walking on the busy city roads — holding the fingers of dad, Sullivan.

‘Last Year before Move to Another World: Kanadia’ reveals John’s mind after the loss of his father. With both parents departed, John tried to feel his ties with brother and sisters, and re-evaluate his days with Deanna and Jewel, his cravings to learn more and earn more. As a computer professional, he strived to migrate to the developed world, Kanadia.

The Second World Of The Journey starts with ‘First Two Weeks at Utopia Territory’. While flying to Kanadia, John kept notes of all events in airports and flights; two weeks later Deanna and Jewel would retrace the same path.

‘Deanna & Jewel Arrive’ shows how John ushered Deanna and Jewel to Kanadia — his new world.

‘Move to Awtotom with a new Bank job’ shows as if John, Deanna and Jewel were leaving behind their age-old friends in a mini South Agrica and taking off for Awtotom — a real Kanadian city.

‘New Flat & Car at Awtotom’ reveals John’s struggle to compete with Kanadian citizens. He strived for a good Kanadian degree to prove that he was more qualified than local graduates.

‘Close Friends at Awtotom’ reveals many people and many incidents, mainly with the people of South Agrican origin.

‘A Week with Someone Else’s Spouse’ discovers John’s urge to extend his love and empathy for people across family boundaries; all these events might have happened only in John’s mind.

‘Back to One’s Legal Spouse’ discovers how the definition of marital love changes even when people return to their married partners; not much changed in John-Deanna relationship though. Was the spreading of oneness across families only in John’s mind?

‘Jeremy & Patricia Visit Awtotom’, reveals how Deanna’s parents liked the new world of John and Deanna in Kanadia. Did they sense oneness in John or Deanna?

‘John & Deanna Buy An Apartment at Port Victoria’ shows their urge of keeping anchors in both worlds — developing South Agrica as well as developed Kanadia, helping to achieve oneness among the few empathetic people of both countries.

‘Move to a new House in Awtotom’ shows John’s strife to make their stay in the new world more and more comfortable. Did John’s quest for oneness lose to the urge for material comfort of his immediate family? Did he find anchor in the small world of immediate family?

‘John Got Hit by a Car’ shows how the power of mind helped him overcome the biggest shock of his life from possible devastation.

‘Jewel Graduates & Develops Her Own Views & Values’ shows that John’s daughter, Jewel, her views, values and vision were very special to John. John meditated to awaken the wisdom and awareness in Jewel.

‘Patricia passes away at Port Victoria’, reflects John’s observation of Deanna on how she responded to Patricia’s sickness.

‘A Year with Someone Else’s Spouse’ discovers John’s urge to extend his love and empathy for people across family boundaries for a longer period.

‘The New Millennium for John’ showed up as the transition from many to one; professionals worked together, forgetting their individual differences to save the world.

‘The Year of Jewel & Ricky’s Wedding’ discovers 2002 as the luckiest year, when John extended his services to other parts of the world, where Jewel and Ricky were not very far.

‘John Works in Banks Worldwide; Jeremy Passes Away’. John’s employer organised for his work visas.

‘John returns to Awtotom’ after assignments in many different countries of the world. Stationed at Awtotom, he would continue to provide services to clients worldwide.

‘Catch up with Adeline’ shows loss of confidence in the sanctity of marriages, reveals exploitation of persons by their spouses, their parents.

‘Paying Guest Accommodation for Bissen’ shows how passionate John was to instil self-reliance in his nephew.

The Third World Of The Journey brings John the dream of ‘One World — One Organisation’.

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too’

FROM THE FIRST WORLD OF THE JOURNEY

THE JOURNEY STARTS

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The first day in John’s memoir is the 18th August — the Independence Day of the country where John was born. While the country celebrates oneness after achieving independence, the situation is much different in John’s family.

After two centuries, the country has become independent of foreign rules. The entire country is celebrating with flowers and fireworks. One page newspaper — Telegram, showing pictures of the new leaders, are distributed free in the streets. Telegram is best means of communication from new leaders to the people of the country; TV sets haven’t been available in the market yet; even radio sets are available only to very few. Offices are closed, even trams and buses are not plying, the whole country has come to a stand-still, relishing and rejoicing the independence. John, hardly 3-year old, is looking at the pictures in Telegram; his sisters Millie and Sallie are reading the paper and explaining the pictures and photos to John and to each other. Another sister, Gaylene, 5 year old, is standing at the window, looking for revelation in the street. Martina, John’s mother, was doing something in the kitchen; a few minutes ago Millie was there too; 10 year old Millie has learnt how to arrange wood sticks, coal and charcoal in a coal-fired stove. 7-year old Sally has not started cooking yet; she has been showing the pictures and photos to John. 14-year old brother Jack is not home; at this hour he is playing with his friends.

As Sullivan returns, Martina is a bit surprised. ‘What happened?’ she says, ‘Didn’t you go for the tuitions job?’

‘No, they won’t take any lesson today, the country has become independent, and so they would enjoy a break.’

‘Why don’t you go to the shops, and bring some grocery?’

‘I have no money, Martina, do you have some?’

‘No, I don’t. I’ve given you yesterday whatever I had.’

‘I’ve been expecting the tuition salary today, but got nothing because students want to have a holiday.’

‘Shall I take off my gold ring, you might get some cash by pawning it?’

‘Those shops are closed too.’

‘But I need to cook something, what would I give these children today for lunch, for dinner? I have some rice, which I shall cook, but I have nothing else, not even lentils.’

‘Do you have any money, left anywhere with anyone of these children? Have you ever given them anything to keep in their purse?’

‘No Sullivan. I can’t think of anything.’

‘What could we do? Should we fast for the day?’ Sullivan’s eyes are wandering around the house to get anything, anything to buy food with. He noticed an improvised carom board; Jack plays carom on that; on that board nineteen pennies are resting, as Jack uses these pennies as carom coins.

‘Look, Martina.’ Sullivan raises his finger to point at those pennies.

Martina and Sullivan walk to Jack’s carom board, not far from where John, Millie and Sally are engrossed with the Telegram.

As Sullivan bends to take the coins off the board, Sally cries out, ‘Please don’t touch Dad. Jack will be very upset. Yesterday, he scolded me when I touched the coin with red chalk marks.’

Martina says, ‘leave these coins if you can, everyday Jack plays with them.’

‘I would have, if I could.’ Sullivan says, ‘I’ve nothing else to buy groceries now.’

*      *      *

John could never forget the day his home country became independent, nor would any of his brothers and sisters — Jack, Millie, Sallie and Gaylene, nor would his parents — Martina and Sullivan. Since then, whenever the Independence Day was celebrated, John remembered that day and the coins being taken off Jack’s carom board.

John never blamed his parents because they were not rich enough; he never blamed them for having a large family in spite of being very close to the poverty line. Had they opted for a smaller family, John would have never been brought to this world, and he won’t get any chance to criticise them. In the days of John’s parents, abortion was never an option; the concept of selective reduction wasn’t even dreamt at that time.

In fact, Sullivan did never strive to plan his family; he didn’t consider whether he and Martina were emotionally or financially ready for five children. Before he started his own family, he had to take care of his five brothers and two sisters. When Sullivan’s father died, his youngest brother was yet to be born, and among other brothers most were in school, one of them was too young to go to school. At that time, he had just appeared in the degree examination. He took a clerical accounting job after his father passed away and took charge of his parental family. The results of his degree exams were published a few months after he started working; he got a B.A. degree — Bachelor of Arts. As far as John remembered, he had never lived in Sullivan’s parental home. Not long after his birth, Sullivan rented a flat leaving the parental house to his brothers and sisters.

*      *      *

Sullivan always appreciated the benefit of formal education. He, himself was a graduate while most of his friends and relatives were hardly educated, if not illiterate. He started Jack’s education well in time and used to tutor him regularly. However education was not so much encouraged among the girls at that time. In many homes, including Sullivan’s, girls were considered second class citizens; they participated more in the household chores, so that they were trained enough before they get married in their teens or in early 20’s; they were not expected to join any profession and earn money for the family. Sullivan cut corners to save the cost of education of his daughters. When Millie became 9 year old, Sally 6 and Gaylene 4, Sullivan took three of them to a local girls’ school and got them all admitted in the same class — Class-I. Sullivan bought two sets of text books for his three daughters, as all three of them need not study the same book at the same time. He considered that he made the best use of his meagre income under the prevailing social circumstances while saving whatever he could for getting his daughters married in time. Paramount importance of suitable marriages was implanted even in the brain of a child like John.

Though a bit older than most her class mates, Millie excelled and she was the top girl in the class. Sally was doing well in studies while she was more interested in extra-curricular activities. Gaylene was under-age in her class and found it difficult to cope with her classmates. In a class of 30 girls, Millie ranked the 1st, Sally the 4th, Gaylene the 20th. When all three of them were in Class-IV, Sullivan admitted John in the Class-I of the same school, which was co-educational for classes I to IV. The youngest in the family, John enjoyed love and affection of his parents, the elder brother Jack, and the sisters Millie, Sally and Gaylene. Sullivan convinced John that he won’t miss much by going to school, because only Martina would be home during the school hours. When Sullivan took him to school, John wanted to be in the same class as his sisters were in, so that he won’t miss their love and affection while at the school. The very first day he joined the school, he realised that he can’t be in the same class room as his sisters were in. So he didn’t like to go to school anymore and didn’t turn up there the next day. Parents, Jack and sisters couldn’t convince him that for his own benefit he must go to school.

Around this time, when John was continuing at home instead of going to school, Jack passed the Intermediate Science exam in the first division securing distinction in most subjects. Before Sullivan knew, he applied for the admission tests in the University College of Engineering and Technology. Sullivan wasn’t very happy about it, he wanted Jack to get a degree in commerce and accounting and join the Auditor General’s office, where Sullivan was working. Sullivan told Jack that he could get the commerce degree in two years and start working; it would take him at least 4 years to pass engineering exam, if he can at all pass that difficult exam. Jack said that he would do some private tuition to pay for his course fees and to help Sullivan in whatever way he could.

Though John did not go to school for a year, he used to study in the evening, when Millie, Sallie and Gaylene prepared their daily home tasks. His sisters were doing well in their studies, while Jack was a brilliant scholar already. He had passed the Intermediate Science Exam in the first division and got letter marks in four subjects. Whenever Sullivan or Martina met their friends and relatives, they discussed achievements of their son and daughters and regretted that John hadn’t been going to school.

Next year, when Sullivan wanted to admit John to school, John didn’t decline; but Sullivan didn’t want him to start in Class-I; he once paid the admission fee for Class-I and didn’t like to pay the fee for the same class again; he requested the headmaster to test John for Class-II. Both Sullivan and the headmaster were astonished to find that John passed the test and qualified for the Class-II. Though John still liked to study in the class of Millie-Sally-Gaylene, he remained in his own classroom and worked well; keeping with the reputation of his sisters, John stood first in the class for three years he studied in this co-educational school. John’s classmates in this school were mostly girls of which the monitor, Alka was very strong, both physically and mentally and kept the students well under her control. One day, Alka made John and Sabrina, one girl of their class, to act as newlywed husband and wife in a wedding ceremony, organised mainly by her mobilising the students of the class. The boys and girls of the class enjoyed the fun during the recess period of the day. There were four boys other than John in his class; out of these four, Frank remained close to John later on; we would talk more about Norton who elicited mass attention for his revolutionary ideas.

After spending the days at work and both mornings and evenings in private tuitions, Sullivan had hardly any time left for his children. John spent most part of his day with his mother and sisters, and sometimes with his brother Jack. John relished the few hours he used to get with Sullivan on Sunday afternoons, when he used to take him to the park or to the city parade ground; while walking to the city, holding the finger of Sullivan’s hand, John beheld the decoration in the city, lights and banners of advertisement. He liked to watch Lipton’s advertisement showing tea being poured into two cups from a fully filled kettle; when the cups got filled the kettle was empty and ready for getting filled with tea again. John also liked the 15 minutes he used to get every day morning from his dad; in these 15 minutes Sullivan used to shave his face before going out for the morning tuitions; John used to tell him how he had translated a piece of text from his dialect to English; he used to read the text sentence by sentence, before and after translation; Sullivan used to listen to him and correct John’s text if necessary. On some days, Sullivan used to teach him maths and grammar as well, mostly by listening to John’s answer to the questions, while his hand was busy with shaving razors.

Sullivan never asked John to shun the company of so called bad boys; he never stopped him from watching movies and reading books; he used to say ‘if you are good enough, you needn’t keep distance from bad people; rather you should help them to choose better options.’

John was the most beloved kid of his mum. On those days chicken eggs were prohibited because of religious reasons. Martina used to keep a few utensils and a petrol stove outside the main house, only to boil eggs and prepare poaches for John; since John was sickly from his childhood she used to take special care of him; John didn’t know whether his brother and sisters used to get any share from this special outdoor kitchen. John used to return the favour in his own way; he knew his mum liked to read novels, but didn’t get time to read any; in the evenings when Martina was engrossed in cooking he read stories and novels to her from library books. While reading books, often he enjoyed tasting the dishes being prepared.

As John spent most time with his sisters, he used to listen to his sisters, preparing their daily lessons. This listening kept John ahead of his own class work; he knew what to expect in his own class room. A couple of days in a week, Jack used to examine his brother and sisters with dictation; Jack often awarded the one who produced all correct reproduction of the dictated text; John used to get the award on most days.

Both Martina and Sullivan like to play at cards and their children developed this habit after them. But John was addicted to this habit, often he used to force his sisters to play cards with him with the threat that he won’t take his dinner unless someone had played at cards with him during dinner. This was a big ask to his sisters before their exam days especially when John hadn’t started going to school and hence had no exams to appear in. John remembered, on one Sunday afternoon Martina, Sullivan, Jack and John had been playing at cards for hours. They were not aware when it started raining heavily and their courtyard and the kitchen got flooded; Martina and Sullivan had to make a few trips through the flooded courtyard to bring the pots of food from the kitchen to the main building.

*      *      *

After finishing the co-educational school, John joined Wheel Hub School where the standard of education wasn’t very high; boys were rather adept in fighting, athletics and games like soccer and hockey. Some of the boys were a bit mischievous; one day someone dragged John to the door of a house nearby, rang the bell and fled away leaving John there. A girl opened the door; she shouted after seeing John and called her mother. John was very embarrassed and said that he was misled to this house by one of his friends and he was indeed looking for another house. However, John used to get lots of love and affection not only from parents, but also from his brothers and sisters. One day John came out on the street barefooted; while he was running about on the road, a sharp fish bone penetrated into the bottom of his left foot and got stuck there. As he returned home limping on one leg, Jack took him on his shoulder and went to a surgeon for taking the fish bone off. Another time, while playing on the road, John fell down and cut his lips; Millie heard him crying and came to his rescue; she washed his lips with antiseptic liquid and taped the injured lip.

‘Don’t worry, John. Your lips are as they were before, not swollen, nor cut, nor pressed.’ Millie said and patted his back.

Jack and another engineering student started a literary magazine — ‘Pioneer’. Jack had a good literary taste and wanted to say something to the people at large on how to enrich the quality of life. But he couldn’t secure good advertisements to pay for his costs, and could reach only a few readers. With limited circulation, the costs were prohibitive and he discontinued the project after publishing three monthly issues. Jack realized that Sullivan didn’t have that sort of funds to finance Jack’s project. Moreover, as Jack reached the final two years of engineering, he needed to work hard on studies and assignments; he didn’t have enough time for the literary magazine. The ‘Pioneer’ had to be abandoned in the dark.

Till this stage, when John was in Class-V and Millie-Sally-Gaylene in Class-VIII, things were going reasonably well for Sullivan family — Millie was still the top girl in the class, Sally was very close, though Gaylene was struggling. At this time, Jack was in the final year of his engineering degree course. Millie had turned seventeen, Martina and Sullivan started looking for a suitable boy to marry her. This was the time when Millie and her parents realised that Millie was not beautiful enough to win a handsome and educated boy with a regular income. Sally was more beautiful and parents of a few prospective grooms proposed to Martina & Sullivan for her. Sally had a very fair complexion, attractive face and physique as well as a beautiful voice and charming personality. Millie now pressurized herself to do well in studies, but being the eldest daughter she had to take major share of Martina’s load of household chores. Moreover, she had love and affection for her younger brother John and sisters — Sally and Gaylene; Jack also engaged her for some errands. Often Millie did not get the requisite hours for her studies and preparation for exams.

*      *      *

In one August night, John woke up hearing a noise near Gaylene’s bed. The lights were all on and everyone in the house — Sullivan, Martina, Millie, Sally and Jack were around the bed. Gaylene apparently had seen some ghost-like object, she was shivering, too frightened to speak. Martina was tapping her forehead and saying, — ‘Look, all of us are here around you, don’t worry; no one can do anything to you.’

Gaylene did not reply; tears rolled down her cheeks; she couldn’t express what happened to her and what went wrong with her. Everyone in the family was at a loss; none could make out what could be done. Martina put wet sponge on Gaylene’s forehead, used a hand fan to cool her head, but nothing cooled Gaylene down. Sometimes she looked around searching for something; so hard she tried to view with her eyes that the eye balls appeared to get off their sockets.

This one night changed the life of Sullivan family forever. Not only Gaylene’s life was shattered, but also everyone else’s in the family. Each one needed to sacrifice some facilities or other, to leave some money for treating and curing Gaylene. With meagre income, Sullivan had been somehow managing to make both ends meet, providing food, shelter and education for his offspring, saving whatever he could for the wedding of daughters. Now he needed more resources to cure Gaylene. Sullivan started one more tuitions job. Jack too started tutoring junior engineering students to get something to pay off his fees. Millie had already been awarded free studentship; pressure was on her for delivering brilliant results every time so that she may continue her free studentship.

Martina and Sullivan had other problems too; they couldn’t discuss Gaylene’s problems with friends and neighbours, lest this should give rise to some unwanted gossip about their family and pose more difficulties in getting Millie married. First they took Gaylene to a general practitioner, who prescribed lots of sleeping tablets, but this didn’t relieve her much. Next, they took resort to one Ayurvedic professional, who made a lot of difference, though the treatment had to be continued — seemingly forever.

As Martina had to spend lot of her time for Gaylene, Millie needed to take care of cooking and other household chores. Sally also helped her sometimes. As Millie and Sally were getting promoted to higher and higher classes every year, their workload were higher and higher and they needed more time to study; but unfortunately, they were not getting enough time for studying, after carrying out household chores for the family. Jack and John were privileged, as male children didn’t have to do household chores, they had to carry out outdoor jobs like buying groceries. Millie were pressurized for doing well in studies, carrying out household jobs well in order to please everyone in the family as well as maintaining beautiful faces and physical appearance in order to get attention of suitable boys.

One evening, when Sullivan was away for his tuitions job, Martina was busy in cooking dinner, and John was playing games with Millie, Sally and Gaylene, Jack returned home. Jack usually returns late in the night, when all his sisters and brother are ready to go to bed; so his sisters Millie-Sally-Gaylene and brother John surrounded Jack to find out why he was early that day. Slowly Jack explained; he went to see the results of the degree exams on the university notice board; he wasn’t sure whether he had passed and what grades he had achieved. He first checked the list of students, who had just passed — his name was not there. He then checked the list of students who passed with credit marks — his name was not there. Finally, he checked the list of students who secured distinction — and he was relieved to find his name there — Jack passed engineering degree exams with flying colours and ranked third in the list of students with distinction. On hearing the noise and applause from the kids, Martina came and heard the great news; she promptly bought some sweets for the kids and lit a candle at the place of her worship. A week later, Jack started his first job as a graduate apprentice and started helping Sullivan in meeting the ends.

Year by year, Sally started outshining Millie in more than one ways. In the final exam of Class VIII, Millie stood first, and Sallie was close second. In the final exam of Class IX, Sallie stood first, and Millie got the tenth position. In the final exam of Class X, Sallie again stood first, and Millie failed in two subjects. Since this was the last exam from the school before they would appear in the board exam, Millie was asked by the school to continue in the Class X. Sullivan pleaded before the principal of the school for allowing Millie to appear in the board exam and she was allowed because of her earlier good records.

Millie studied hard for the board examination; she slept only a few hours a day. But this did not help her much, while Sally was preparing herself well for the exam in spite of studying for less number of hours.

Results of the board exam got published — Sally’s results were below expectation, she passed in the 2nd division; but more shocking were Millie’s — she failed in two subjects. John did not quite expect such results; he still believed Millie could bring about top results.

*      *      *

Lights were off in the room where Millie was brooding, — ‘What can I do now? What should I do?’ The faint hope, Millie was living on so long, had now died. ‘How would I show my face to my friends, my relatives — who still carry the impression that in this society I am one of the most suitable girls, good in studies, good in household work, good in whatever I do? What Jack, Sally and John will think about me, they are all good in studies, and expect me to do well? What would happen to my marriage prospects — what would my parents say to the parents of prospective grooms? . . . I can’t live here anymore, not in this home — in this family, in this little world of seven persons. Where can I go now? I don’t have enough money to start living on my own outside my small world. No help is available from the government of the country. No friends, no relatives will let me live with them without informing my parents. But I must leave, must leave now without letting anyone else know.’

Stealthily Millie came out of her room, took her wallet with her — not much money in it — enough for a few bus trips. Was anybody watching? She went to the bathroom to avoid any suspicious eyes, then she slipped off the main door still stealthily, no one noticed when she left the house. Still she did not know where to go, she was not able to think clearly and make up her mind. Only thing she was looking for was how quickly she could go somewhere, where she could end her life — by drowning into the big river or by throwing herself on the railway track to get crushed by a running train.

When Martina came to check for Millie, Millie had already left. At once she called Sally and John and asked them about Millie, alas — they didn’t know anything yet. As Martina told, John went out on the streets to track Millie. He went around a few spots including bus stops, but could not find Millie. John was wondering whether he should come back before getting Millie. After a few minutes John returned to ask Martina what they could do now. In the mean time, Jack had arrived home and after hearing from Martina, he went out too. Jack, however, found Millie soon, she was waiting for a rickshaw to get to a distant bus stop. Jack grabbed Millie’s hand and said, ‘Please come home with me. Don’t make any noise, as others would look at us and become suspicious.’ Millie did not have any choice. She realised she couldn’t do much without letting the pedestrians and the neighbours know.

‘I won’t let you fall behind me, Millie.’ Sally said to her, ‘Please continue studying and appear again in the next year, I am sure you would pass. This one year would not matter much in your career.’

Millie could not say anything; she was still wondering whether she would pass next time. She was already late in her studies, as she was admitted to school when nine year old.

Sally continued, ‘I would not get admitted to the college this year. I would help you in studying instead. Next year, after you pass we would go to the colleges together.’

Millie was now in a position to accept her position. With Sally’s help, she went to school, filled in forms and paid fees for the exam of the next year. She prepared a plan for studying all subjects, she would appear next year plus what help she needed from Sally, especially in the subjects, she failed. Sally not only helped Millie in her studies, she took over from her all household chores, so that Millie could get more time at her disposal.

Gaylene was almost normal after regular treatment of the Ayurvedic professional. However, she discontinued studies, as doctors considered that she was too young for Class VIII, she should take up less challenging tasks of drawing pictures and singing songs. Though she kept her books of Class-VIII, and sometimes tried to glance through them, she started spending more hours in drawing sketches and painting. Their uncle O’Neill was very skilled in painting and often he visited Martina’s to provide voluntary help to Gaylene whenever he could. As John liked painting as well, he often joined Gaylene in painting and drawing. Considering Gaylene’s prospects for marriage, especially when she was not pursuing school education, Martina admitted Gaylene in a music school and bought a harmonium for her. Gaylene started Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do followed by a number of simple songs. Everyone in the house developed some taste for music; rhythms at various frequencies often vibrated the house. Millie, Sally and John often joined Gaylene in chorus.

SCHOOL DAYS OF JOHN

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Forensic experts dissected John’s memoir to emerge with the views and visions of John in his childhood and teenage days; on those days, John’s main anchor was his family; his family was his entire world; he grew up from his childhood dreams about the world. In his small world, his brother Jack was the messenger from the bigger world; he inspired John to excel and John responded. In this chapter, we would see what forensic probes discovered — the struggle and adversities, John had to go through to attain world class educational standard — top honours in his schools.

*      *      *

After working for two years as a graduate apprentice, Jack moved to Bloemfontein as a foreman in the fertilizer industry. Jack did not like to move from the security and comfort of the family life, nor did anyone in the family wanted him to go; but this was perhaps the best option for him. The fertilizer industry was being set up at Bloemfontein under a foreign collaboration, the experience in this growing industry seemed promising to Jack. Jack set forth to start a tough hostel life, he knew that he would still need to send money to Sullivan every month to help Gaylene’s treatment and the school expenses of his brother and sisters. Millie, Sally and John — all missed Jack, who was always ready to help his sisters in their homework.

As John got into Class-IX, he needed to choose one of the specialised courses. The school education system was getting transformed and the eleven-year school curriculum was introduced; the first eight years were meant for general core curriculum to be followed by every student, while the students could choose specialised streams of Science, Humanities or Commerce in the last three years. Wheel Hub School, John was in, offered only the stream of Humanities, so John was engaged in this stream. When Jack came to the town on a leave in the month of May, it was already very late; the 5th month of the Class-IX has started. Jack pleaded to Sullivan that John should change for a school that offered the Science stream; Jack recommended for Meteor Institution. Though John was the top boy in his school it was not easy to get admission to renowned Meteor Institution. To be eligible for admission, the student needed to secure referral from one of the recognised teachers of Meteor Institution. Jack knew one such teacher, and by securing his referral, John could be admitted there. Jack also studied in Wheel Hub School, and secured excellent scores in the School Final exams from that school. The Deputy Head Master of the school loved both Jack and John; he loved Jack so much that he used to address John as ‘Jack’. He strongly argued that John is a genius in literature and humanities and should continue in Wheel Hub School; he would take all care to ensure that John would excel in literature and humanities. Sullivan was also worried that John may not get free studentship in the new school; but thanks to the negotiation of the referring teacher, John was awarded free studentship for three months in Meteor Institution and this was promised to be continued, subject to excellent results in the next half yearly examination. Sullivan and John were convinced by Jack’s argument that John must take up the science stream to have the option of studying engineering or medicine later on. John was admitted to Class-IX of Meteor Institution five months later than other students in the same class.

In Meteor Institution John found Frank, his old mate from the co-educational school. Frank told him about Norton, another mate from the same co-educational school. Frank joined Meteor Institution right after finishing the co-educational school, while Norton joined South Suburban School. Norton was doing well in his studies, but he felt the urge for doing something for the people of the country and joined a scholarly group of Vauxhallites. Even the head master of the school was one of the leaders of this professional scholarly group. The school authorities, however, did not like the Vauxhallites; the headmaster had to leave and Norton was rusticated. He moved to White Lotus Institution to follow the School Final curriculum from there.

*      *      *

In Meteor Institution, best students were selected into the C sections. After the Science stream was introduced, the Section C of Class-IX included the best science students only, while the Section B of Class-IX included not so talented science students and Section A included all Humanities students. John was admitted in Class-IX, Section B, his roll number was 13. Sullivan did not like that unlucky number, but the school did not allow any option to change that number. Jack said in his engineering college the boys, with the roll number 13, could never pass. But when this number could not be changed, John had no other options but to accept it.

When John went to Meteor Institute first time, he was accompanied by Frank; Frank introduced him to some of his friends, and then went to his section — Section-C. John had to go to the Section-B, where his class mates asked about his whereabouts; most of them looked down on him, when they came to know that John was from a less renowned school. Soon a session of Algebra got started; John had not done any Algebra in the previous school. The teacher wrote two equations on the board and asked the students to solve:

SOLVE: X + 2Y = 5… . (i)

2X +3Y= 8… . (ii)

John found that other boys were adding/subtracting one equation from the other. He did not know what to do; when the teacher asked him for the solution, he replied, ‘X + Y = 3, Sir’

The boys around him started laughing. Subconsciously, John might have been evaluating what value the two entities together could add rather than what value each entity could add in isolation.

The teacher calmly said, ‘It seems you haven’t done any Algebra before. I want you to find the value of X and Y, not of X + Y. The class is doing Chapter-10 of this book; you need to go through the chapters 1 to 9 first, before you solve these equations. However, you have got X + Y = 3; Subtract this equation from (i), you would get Y = 2; and X = 3 - Y = 3 - 2 = 1. Thus you can get the values of X and Y.’

When John went home, he consulted Millie and Sally about Algebra lessons, worked out some examples from chapters 1 to 10. Next time John was in the Algebra session, he did not have any difficulty in solving equations.

In the half-yearly examination of Class-IX, John scored 100% marks in Mathematics, which included Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry and Geometry. In science subjects, he scored 90% marks, while in literature subjects he secured 65% marks. His overall rank in the class was 2nd, his free studentship was confirmed for another year and he was asked to sit in the