will leave for her husband’s house. She should not hear the word “no”. She should be brought up as a lady. She should get good education. As if Sabina was his breath. He thought that his small daughter was the best gift of the Great God to him. He had a lot of optimistic wishes and plans connected with Sabina. After he divorced with Zibeyde, though he was reproached he could find time to rush to Sabina’s school and see his daughter. Day after day he could feel how his daughter becomes colder and colder towards him. During the first days when Zibeyde left home taking Sabina with her, Masud missed Sabina too much. Every day he woke up crying bitterly saying “Sabina”. At court he told that he passes his house to his daughter. The home in which he was living now was the home his parents lived once. Approximately for a year he went to school to see his daughter. But one day he saw Zibeyde coming out from the chief’s office. As soon as Zibeyde left, the chief called him and informed: – Masud, your wife complained that you were going to kidnap your daughter. She says that you instigate your daughter against her mother. She says that if you go to see your daughter once more she will complain and try to get you to jail. Be careful. Your wife is too aggressive.
After that event captain Masud Ibrahimzade went to school to see his daughter Sabina but he could feel how his daughter grew cold to him. The last time when he went to school he saw how Sabina ran towards classroom seeing him. He turned back and wanted to leave the school, he saw Zibeyde at the gate. Even now he can remember the insulting words of Zibeyde. Since that time neither he could forget Zibeyde’s words nor his daughter Sabina. Masud who wanted to console himself somehow, would never forgive himself for losing Sabina. Zibeyde could be able to make Sabina lose interest to him. Even if he married Kaushari and they had five or six daughters or four sons Sabina was dearest to him. The wound in Masud’s heart would never be recovered. Now there was neither Sabina nor Zibeyde near him. Only Jannah was near him….
***
Jannah Agafovna Gubanova worked as a ticket-seller in a booking-office. They met when Jannah’s son killed some guy. He was a member of operational group. Jannah was taken to the department as a murderer’s mother. He felt sorry for a stout woman waiting in the corridor for her investigation for hours. He called her to his office and offered her a seat. Jannah was crestfallen and revealed the story of her life to him. When Masud brought up the subject of India he felt how attentively this large woman was listening to him, what only increased his sympathy to her. He didn’t allow other policemen to hurt somehow her feelings. After one month Jannah called him at his work place:– Masud, help me. My darned daughter deceived me and made me sell my house. She told me, let’s sell it and move to Rostov, and so I did and went to Rostov. Over there coupled with her husband drunkard they took my money and ditched me on the street, telling me to scram back to the place where I came from. Masud, the booking-office is also closed. Who would lend money to anyone nowadays. God forbid, should I beg on the streets?
This is Jannah’s life. What can she do? Then he brought Jannah to his house and told her that she can stay here for awhile. “I am also alone. You can tidy up the room. Later we would figure something out”. Since that time Jannah lives with him. Everyday she leaves in the morning and returns back in the evening. “Masud, I am seeking for a job”. “Let me go have a look if the booking-office is open”. “Masud, do you maybe have 3 manats? As soon as I find a job I will pay everything back…”
Oh well, at least from time to time Jannah cooked a borsch or something else. Plus, no one listened to his story of India as attentively as Jannah did. In fact, Masud started to like her initially because of this. Everyone has heard his story of India. Some, as their chief used to do, were telling him that they were fed up with his stories of India and if he doesn’t want to work, why doesn’t he move to his beloved India. His colleague who sat with him in the same room would leave the room immediately as Masud started talking about India saying: “I will come back in a second”. Zibeyde in these cases used to increase the volume of TV or would quickly start dialing her sisters. Sabina would smile and say: – “Father, you have said this already. Arsham is there, Taj- Mahal is there, there are the monuments of Buddha” – and would quickly leave to her room. At times some of his joker friends would ask him: “Masud, how are your relatives in India?” and burst out laughing after this – “Ha, ha, ha…”
But when a young employee who graduated from the Police Academy was appointed to the Criminal Investigation Department, Masud was happy. That young employee was attached to him, he had to teach him the secrets of work. The trainees whom he taught are either a major or a colonel. When the young employee was assigned to him in between teachings of subtleties of work Masud also used to tell him about India. Masud talked about India in such a way that young man the relative of some authoritative man started to believe that India is better than the places like New York, London, Dubai and Venice which he has visited numerous times. But after some time the employees who sat in the next room stared to ask the young boy whether the talks of Masud bored him or not: “We respect your father a lot…Masud has lost his mind…Only once in his life he traveled India, since that time…Well, don’t pay much attention. We know that you won’t stay here for long anyway… You will be either transferred to the Passport Registration department or become deputy of the head of the department. It is temporary inconvenience.” Maybe the reason of why the employees who were assigned to Masud would quickly rise to a higher pillar was that on the example of captain Ibrahimzade they would learned how not to work, and would advance to a higher rank earlier.
Among the foreign countries Masud visited only India. He had been in Russia too but he didn’t consider it to be a foreign country. He graduated from the faculty of law of the best higher education institution, Moscow State University named after Lomonosov. The year he finished the secondary school his father was the third secretary of the party committee of the district. When Masud was entering the University named after Lomonosov, the first secretary called his father and said: Well done! I congratulate you! “Sputnik” international tourism agency has issued a voucher for travel. Last year my son went to Yugoslavia. He liked it a lot. This year send your son. The voucher is to India.
His father used to phone him every day, watching his every step. He didn’t want him to go to India as a tourist, but the first secretary wouldn’t offer India trip just to anyone – “No, I am obliged to send my son to India if the first secretary offers. I can’t object to him. I would let him go” – he said.
Yes, if it wasn’t for the first secretary he wouldn’t be able to travel to India….
***
…In Delhi they were placed in a “Holiday Inn” hotel which was assigned to a group. In the morning they were drove to “Taj -Mahal” with the buses. All around was greener than green and bluer than blue…
The guide was a girl – as if she was carved out of an ivory. She was like a Sirius* which was described and glorified in the classic Indian poetry. Her eyes resembled the eyes of the Goddess Varuna*. She could speak Russian very fluently with sweet Indian pronounciation. When she was opening her lips and speaking the student of the Law Department of Moscow State University named after Lomonosov , Masud Inbrahimzade thought she was singing a song. As if Masud was dreaming. A fear was emerging in his heart to wake up from this dream. He desired to live in this dream for all his life. But each dream has its ending. He didn’t have choice – it is called a love from the first sight. He didn’t know the reason why he similized this girl to a Goddess Varuna. The girl also did not stay indifferent to this tall guy….Maybe invisible spirits of Jahan Shah and Mumtaz Mahal, that were soaring above the Taj -Mahal palace blessed this love. Right there, in front of this love temple the girl told him her name:
–Kaushari.
–Masud.
India…The paradise on Earth….The country of contrasts. ..The stream of people of Delhi…Rosy city of Jaypur. The magnificent castle of Amber. Fascinating Agra. Romantic love city with five beautiful lakes one better than the other, “the Venice of India”– Udaypur. The old city of Jaysalmer, with narrow streets and charming palaces. The palace of Hava Mahal. The magnificent banks of Gang…Travelling to all these places accompanied by the girl with whom he fell in love at first sight made all these beauty become engraved in his mind forever.
As