DAVID’S WEDNESDAY OVERTIME

It was in the 1980’s that I reached Mumbai (then Bombay). Fortunately or unfortunately my first days in the Maximum City began in a small, dingy room with a door in front and a window which was always kept opened in the back. The room was not at all spacious for the five room-mates to pull on their life. Except for an old table, virtually nothing valuable was not in the room. In a city like Mumbai an accommodation is a dream for an ordinary person which is very difficult to materialize. An copper wire tied up at both ends of the wall at one side of the room served our purpose of hanging our clothes.

Though my first days in the room was somewhat horrible, in due course I got accustomed with the life there. We room-mates slept on the mat spread along the broken cement floor of the room.

All of us were bachelors and free-birds and all enjoyed the bachelor life in the city which is very fond of bachelors whether males or females. Each had certain secret affair which remained secret till they divulged it to the room-mates. A few kept their secrets to themselves.

I still vividly recall one incident, the hero of which was none other than David.

On every Wednesdays David played a vanishing trick under the pretext of over-time work in his firm. Nothing was there to disbelieve him as many companies in Bombay used to direct their employees to work overnight. 

That Sunday, I was alone in the room. Albeit in sleep, I could hear the foot-steps of somebody outside and woke up in irritation. Outside the room I saw a lady in her late 40’s peeping inside. ‘Who are you’ – while opening the door I enquired curtly.

‘My name is Meenakshi…Coming from Chembur…David is here? She was dressed in an old saree, and a ragged blouse which too seemed an old one.

‘David went out early in the morning to visit a relative’ – I told her. Actually I didn’t have any idea where David had gone early in the morning. I had overheard one of our room-mates talking about a girl working as a typist clerk at a firm in Marine Lines. Whether true or false, I was not sure’.

In the meantime I was wondering: ‘who is the lady? I haven’t heard about David talking about such a lady. What connection is there in between them’?

‘You are David’s’?- I inquired

The lady cringed for a moment. Her face turned pale and she appeared to be very nervous. Something fishy. I told myself.

‘I know David since a long time. Once in a week he used to visit me at Chembur. For the last two weeks I haven’t heard anything about him. I don’t know why? Whether he is sick or somethinglike that’? – she was inquiring with her eyes going wide and I saw a question mark on her face.

‘Each Wedenesday evening he used to come to Chembur and spent the night in my room’ – she heaved a sigh.

‘You are alone there’?

-          Actually I wanted to know whether she was married, living there with family.

The lady hung her face. No reply came out of her for a few minutes. I was getting somewhat interested. A curiosity shone in my eyes. David’s Wednesday overtime work was a lie. A naked lie. Naughty idiot.

‘Husband left me and ran away with a lady in the neighbourhood. Now I am alone’ – her eyes welled up.

Whether she was lying to me or not, I was not certain.

For a few minutes I remained speechless. An uneasy silence seemed unbearable.

I wanted to send her back and meet him in the morning at his company.

‘He is expected late into the night. Until then waiting here to meet him is risky. This is Bombay, you know….’

As soon as she left I got inside and had a hearty laugh which lasted for some moments. Whenever I thought about him, I couldn’t control my laugh. Even after thirty years, I used to think about the life in Mumbai, especially of bachelors’ coming from the outside States, especially Kerala.

Whenever my mind travels back to Mumbai I recall my life with the other four room-mates and the Wednesday overtime of David especially.