Guild Hostilities

By C R Barath Narayanan

Ram Reddy discovers the potential in Mohamed Ali Adnan, trains him to wrestle. Mohamed develops friendship with Ramaswamy Iyer while training under Ram Reddy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Aug 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9789384049966

Book preview

Epilogue

PROLOGUE

1888 - Hyderabad

His eyes are not that luminous as it was a while back. He is trying to have his nose in grindstone.

‘I shouldn’t collapse in front of this crowd,’ he said to

himself, as his adversary viewed his lips move in a weak manner.

His head is not strongly placed over his shoulders. He is not able to focus as his brain produced earthquake illusions due to the malevolent aggression shown by his competitor.

‘Reddy! Reddy! Reddy! Come on! Come on!’ – Alive and kicking chanting of his home soil’s crowd signed up into his ears. He felt the chanting sound echo seesaw into his head, hitting deep into the inner walls of his cranium, and raising the levels of his epinephrine. He tries to forget that he is hurt. His hamstrings are trying to charge him antrorse! Every single cell of his body responded to the jurisdiction of the chanting crowd. He was at his wits’ end to put on a counterattack!

The local hero rouse like an angry cobra in a pursuit to inject venom into his raven! He twinges his shoulder into his competitor’s stomach and thrusts him inside the sands of the wrestling pit, amusing his admirers!

Dust hiked from the surface of the wrestling pit as his competitor plunged into the soil! Crowd’s roar supporting him also rouse along with the grime!

Even posterior to his counterattack, he was not able to get on his feet. He was catching the sight of the environment surrounding him turn reddish, as excessive volume of his blood raced through the arteries inside his head.

Singh – the immovable and huge antagonist of Reddy, was feeling humiliated by Reddy’s counterattack. He rouse his feet and embraced Reddy’s neck with his ankles, and pulled him down towards the earth.

Reddy’s reflexes spun his head towards Singh’s legs. He felt Singh’s blood on his teeth, and felt his jaw-bone crack as Singh’s leg landed on the earth. Singh pulled his injured leg and inspected his wound as Reddy squeezed his cheeks painfully and spat Singh’s blood on the soil.

The agony caused by his broken jaw was stubborn in resisting Reddy’s movements. The crowd supporting Reddy was haunted by a wave of trauma, Singh raised his arms high, making a thanking gesture towards the sky, looking into the sun’s radiation by shrinking his eye.

CHAPTER 1

‘I knew that this will happen someday,’ howled Chandrasekhara Reddy – Ram Reddy’s father. He took a closer look at his son’s broken jaw.

Chandrasekhara Reddy was a business man. He inherited his business from his father, considering it as the family’s pride. He had lands to cultivate rice, wheat, vegetables and textile raw materials, had a firm to trade them worldwide. His firm had been run by his aristocracy since the British stepped into India. At the beginning, the firm’s trade was limited within the neighbouring states of Hyderabad, then, the number of their clients increased alongside the number representing year in an English calendar. Chandrasekhara Reddy had a habit of distributing twenty percent of his income as patronage to the poor. Thousands of underprivileged and bankrupt people were drawn towards Reddy every day, they were seeking to cure their agony by requesting him for help. Stories speaking about men who saved their homes from the croaking money lenders, and bankrupt men who got their daughters married to wealthy bridegrooms were popular in Hyderabad due to Reddy’s patronage.

Reddy wanted the pride of his family to be flourishing for ever. He wanted his son to take over his lands and firm after his retirement, instead of taking up wrestling way of life.

‘This fellow! Born in a rich and the most respected family, chooses to live a life of a barbarian! Barbarian! Fucking barbarian!’ howled Chandrasekhara Reddy. He made a gesture with his eyes – apologizing to his wife for using foul language, as a response to her synthetic cough: twenty one years of married life made non-verbal communication between this couple simple.

‘You are a man! Now you have the abilities to take over the family’s business from your father! You are educated! Enough of playing Ram! Achieving in sports does make your parents feel proud, yes! I do agree, but not as much as it did five or six years ago! Twenty year old son of a merchant, coming out of a sports field with a broken jaw, ditching his work in the commission! Makes me feel embarrassed!’ said Meera Reddy – Ram Reddy’s mother, raced her fingers through her son’s hair.

‘Will you listen to mommy?’ She looked into his eyes, making gentle strokes on his strong shoulders.

Ram nodded, not taking his eyes away from the living room’s floor.

CHAPTER 2

Two years later…

It has been two years since the wrestling match and the broken jaw. It has been two years since Ram Reddy’s ears got energized with the heartening chanting of his home soil’s crowd. Ram Reddy has been devoting a stretch in his phase of life inside his office – thinking of new ideas to deal with different marketing prodigies and rarities. He followed his father’s habit of allocating twenty percent of his income as patronage.

In a judgement to root out un-employment from people who are financially inferior and good enough for pity, Ram Reddy resolved to donate cabs. Following the most profitable month of the year, Ram Reddy donated seven hundred cabs.

‘Jesus Christ said that it is meritorious for a poor person to learn fishing by preference than getting a fish for a meal from a wealthy person. I read this few days ago.

This idea of donating seven hundred cabs arouse after getting animated by the words of Jesus Christ.

Donating money to poor people just serves them to some bits of their lives, not all of them. But, donating them with a source from which money issues will help them to live the rest of their lives not depending upon another person. My assistants have selected seven hundred un-employed members from the families under poverty line. Shortly we are going to see seven hundred people who are going to make their living by working as independent cab drivers,’ said Ram Reddy.

Whistles and claps thundered as Ram Reddy finished his speech, he advanced to the event of donating cabs to poor people, and they wished him long life with prosperity.

Assistance given to the people who need it serves as a ceremony of worship to the almighty, amusement and pleasure of poor people persuaded god to advance Ram Reddy to the next level of his life...

Sensations produced in ear by the flapping pigeon wings, chimes of the temple bell, and the hymns chanted by the priests pervaded the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple, hypnotising the visitors’ souls.

Chandrasekhara Reddy and Meera Reddy were walking on the prakaram surrounding the lord Vishnu shrine, their hearts were filled with ecstasy after hearing the phraseologies praising their child.

‘Don’t you think that it’s time to find a girl for Ram?’ asked Meera, raising one of her eyebrows.

‘Even I was thinking about it, honey,’ said Chandrasekhara.

‘Can I ask my friend Nandhini to provide her daughter’s horoscopes? That girl’s name is Gayatri, she is the cutest of all the girls I know,’ she winked her eyes.

‘I respect my wife’s wishes. She is the most intelligent and the cutest of all the women I know,’ he said, she embraced his hand, placing a kiss on his shoulder.

CHAPTER 3

Ram Reddy was dressed traditional. He wore a kurta made of silk, had a dhoti around his waist, shaved his beard, and had a moustache with twirl. His relatives and well-wishers gathered around the courtyard, the seventeen year old bride took her position at centre.

‘Does she sing?’ asked a middle aged female relative of Ram Reddy.

‘She never showed any interest in singing and dancing, she learnt other stuff,’ said Nandhini.

‘What did she learn?’ asked Meera.

‘Mathematic, economics and basics of marketing from her father. She had a tutor who taught her English, Hindi and Telugu. She learnt to speak Tamil from our neighbours. She helps her father with business letters and telegrams. We grew her up as a traditional Telugu girl with all qualities of a businesswoman,’ said Nandhini.

‘You are going to give the responsibilities of protecting your treasure to our son, am I right?’ asked Chandrasekhara.

‘Yes, and proud of it,’ said Narayana Reddy – Gayatri’s father.

Nothing will stop a girl from liking a man with wisdom, kindness, money, and manly attraction. Nothing will stop a man from liking a girl who is a living Roman statue with intelligence and sweetness.

The bride and the groom liked each other, their family members liked each other, and were proud of each other. The marriage was fixed, responsibilities were exchanged along with the hearts.

CHAPTER 4

1897 – Hyderabad

Sanjay Reddy studied in a convent built by the British. He was considered to be the most intelligent student by his school’s principal. Speaking English with his mother made him excel in the language, and made the educated business partners of his father admire him. Gayatri Reddy and Ram Reddy were proud of their child.

Whenever Ram Reddy tried playful tricks to get his son encouraged to learn wrestling, he failed.

Sanjay preferred to read books instead of involving in bouts. He preferred to play games which required more mental activity than physical. Within the age of six, he developed the talent of multiplying two different three digit numbers without a paper and pen.

Ram Reddy had a personal cab driver, his name was Shahid Ali Adnan, and stayed within the premises of his palace. If the number of members and their ages were considered to compare families, then, Shahid’s family was similar to that of Ram’s. Shahid had a wife, and a son named Mohamed Ali Adnan whose education was sponsored by Ram.

Sanjay and Mohamed were good friends. They spent the weekends together. Sanjay was interested in experimenting with botany, so, along with Mohamed, he went to the places where trees grew dense, and searched for seeds. They both planted the collected seeds in Reddy’s back yard, and admired them grow. They climbed trees, dug soil, got dirty, and swam in the Musi River. Sanjay did not swim during his first encounter at the Musi, Mohamed trained him. Mohamed found it difficult to solve mathematics, Sanjay taught him the easy techniques.

It was a Sunday, Ram Reddy paid a visit to the Vishnu shrine, was returning in his cab along with Shahid, and saw Sanjay, Mohamed and other kids playing in his lawn.

Ram called the kids, ‘now, you are going to split up into two teams. There is going to be a kabbadi match now, the winning team members will get twenty annas each,’ he said.

‘Wah! Wah!’ Shahid appreciated.

Fourteen kids split themselves into two teams, Sanjay and Mohamed were in the same team.

‘I don’t even know the basics of Kabbadi, mate,’ said Sanjay.

‘Chant ‘kabbadi, kabbadi,’ then try to throw opponents out of the boundary line, that’s it,’ said Mohamed.

‘You made that explanation quite simple, but still the task looks quite difficult. That team has elder kids, they look like elephant calves owned by the Nizam,’ said Sanjay.

‘Elephant calves are afraid of lions,’ said Mohamed, he was quite thrilled.

The kabbadi match started, the opponents made considerable progress. Anyone who got into their court was thrown, anyone of them who invaded threw at least three.

‘I warned you about this,’ said Sanjay, being throw after his invasion.

Mohamed took a handful of earth, rubbed his palms, stepped into the opponent’s boundaries, and invaded them. He was the strongest kid in his team.

‘Mohamed! Mohamed! Mohamed!’ – Alive and kicking chanting of his team mates signed up into his ears, echoed seesaw hitting the inner walls of his cranium, his hamstrings charged him antrorse, he confused his opponents with his swift movements, pushed every one of them out, defeated them by pushing the bulkiest kid out of the boundary, emerged as a champion, and rode on the shoulders of his team mates as a hero.

Ram Reddy remembered his days as a wrestler. He had a desire to be the guru of a champion wrestler after his retirement, tried to train his son, failed, with patience he searched for a disciple. He sensed the potential in Mohamed. He accepted him as a disciple by his heart, and was eager to train him.

CHAPTER 5

Krishnaswamy Iyer, a literate Tamil speaking Brahmin, was working as an accountant for Ram Reddy. He was worried about his daughter’s disease. It had been six months since she had learnt anything, anything she saw on the paper resembled dead ants.

Iyer was sitting beside his daughter on the bed, as his son took a closer view at his sleeping sister’s weak face, expecting her to get tweened back to healthy state.

‘Take care of her, mother will be here in a while,’ said Krishnaswamy, pressed his daughter’s shoulders softly, and left the room.

Seven year old Ramaswamy Iyer considered his sister as everything in his life. Since the day his sister got affected by rheumatism, he felt his days crawl as a snail. He spoke about his sister with whomever he met. He always sat beside his sister on the bed while at home, asking her to get back to normal life. He hardly got any reply from her, but her silence did not stop him from talking to her. He took her hands in his palms, and felt the nine year old girl’s crookedly arranged weak finger bones. He placed a paper on her hand.

‘For the first time I drew something without having your hands wrapped upon mine,’ said Ramaswamy.

Lakshmi saw a little girl with a plaited hair on the paper. She scanned the little girl from head to toe with her crooked fingers and moist red eyes.

‘Who’s she?’

‘Ain’t she look like you?’

‘You meant me in this drawing?’

‘Yeah’

‘But – she looks beautiful, with nice fingers and… her eyes are attractive’

Ramaswamy took her hands, and looked at her fingers with sadness blend with sympathy.

‘These fingers aren’t yours, I had seen them wrapped upon mine, guiding me to

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