world would he?
I think that it would be best for us to have our discussion in the coffee shop across the road. is that ok with you?
Jalal Singh had an assuredness, a self confidence that Eliot was to learn was unsettling for others, so as a response Eliot joked with the women behind the counter in the coffee shop. Good morning, great day isn’t it? You have a lovely smile. Sorry to be picky but I love my latte extra hot. At that moment Eliot did not notice that Jalal turned his head away and rolled his eyes. Could he have known that Jalal Singh wondered what was this man thinking? And he didn’t like his ponytail! Could he have guessed that Jalal Singh was unsure that this was the man he wanted to work in his school? Maybe he was too old. He did come highly recommended by his referees. At the end of their talk Jalal Singh told himself that Eliot would do.
Jalal and Eliot sat down and faced each other at a round table for two and waited for their coffee. Jalal had an enormous nose, like a ripe mango with two cavernous holes that stared back at him above a grey Hitleresque moustache. His top teeth protruded slightly when he spoke. Their was an awkward silence and then Eliot asked Jalal how long he had lived in Australia. Their coffee came and then Jalal began to speak.
Madho Patti where I was born is a very small village. The school has maybe two hundred students. The principal’s name is Madan, he is very busy but he will cook your meals. Our school teaches English unlike most schools in Uttar Pradesh. Don’t worry, the people of Madho Patti will be very happy to see him, especially because they had chosen to send their children to Madho Patti Junior Elementary School for good reasons, because they want their children to understand the true path in life and because they wanted them to learn to speak English.
We need someone to help set up the English program, to help the English teachers. Eliot would need to understand that in Uttar Pradesh most people outside of the school community were poor and uneducated, that they were strangely superstitiousand they wouldn’t know what to think about Eliot coming there. They would stare at him. Indian people had so many gods and no doubt one of them would explain what Eliot’s coming meant... in time. His air fare would be paid. He would be paid a small allowance. You are not allowed to have a personal computer at our school. Sometimes he could use the school computer and modem if Madan said it was OK.
It seemed to Eliot that Jalal was looking straight over his shoulder when he said that it was very hot in the day in Uttar Pradesh and just hot at night and he would need to sleep under a mosquito net,. There was a fan in their room, he would arrange for another one to be put in and the electricity only came from the grid for six hours a day and the fans would keep spinning as long as there was enough sun hitting the solar panels. When Eliot told Louise about what he had found out he said that when he needed to take a crap he would be squatting over a hole and when he washed he would be scooping cold water from a bucket, that all his food would be vegetarian that there were eight staff at the school and on good days about two hundred students
Eliot could sense that Jalal was almost finished. It seemed like that he could only afford just a little of his valuable time and now he seemed more serious or maybe a little uncomfortable. The treatment of women. You must be very careful in your relationship with women, you must remember that you cannot talk and act with women in Madho Patti like you do with women in Australia, like you just did then when we ordered coffee. You must always remember that you are not in Australia. Try to arrive in Varanasi on the seventeenth and Madan and I will be at the airport to meet you. I will be there with you for about five days before I return to Australia…………..One last thing more. The school is very small so we will have to share a room for those few days. I hope you don’t mind Eliot ………..Are you happy to take on this position?
Eliot extended his hand and looked Jalal in the eye and they shook hands. An agreement had been made.
No problem at all Jalal, I am excited by the challenge
On the walk back to the station his head was spinning, facts, unanswered questions, doubts and excitement.When Eliot stood on the platform waiting for the train he thought about the reality of sharing a room with Jalal! He heard Marion’s voice in his ear, what were you going on about last night in your sleep Eliot? I’m sure that the neighbours could hear. I was almost going to smother you with your pillow she would say with that smile.Then she would laughingly threaten to move to the spare bedroom. He doubted whether Jalal would find it funny.
6.
He had been sick many times, the girls had been too. He had fallen from his motorbike and broken his collarbone, sometimes he had felt undervalued and sometimes he just didn’t understand things, because of the problems of culture or language. Once there was no role for him, once the expectations seemed too high. He had contracted dengue fever, Brenda had died. But beside him at every challenge was his partner and Marion seemed to know her way around any problem. Could he do it on his own? In Uttar Pradesh, the poorest and most densely populated part of India, that wondrous, colourful, challenging and edgy country?
Eliot poured himself a second glass of red wine. On the train on the way home he had rung Louise with the news. Yes he was going. In a couple of weeks time. Would she like to come over for dinner and a wine to celebrate his new assignment? He would only be away for about eight weeks. But she said she was busy, going to some theatre production with friends. He didn’t mention the cat.
He was not sure how to fill in his time and then he remembered that there would be one more book club before he set off for India. So he settled down on the couch with Elvie and opened this month’s book that Eleanor had presented to him. There had been a double murder and a suicide on a farm in the Wimmera, or was it a triple murder? People in a small country town couldn’t avoid each other’s actions and intentions. There was a knock at his door. He didn’t think who could that be? When he opened the door Eleanor would say can I come in? What could he say? Her face was open and smiling. Her dress pink with mauve dahlias, her lipstick and nail polish bright red. Her cleavage looked at him.
I was at a bit of a loose end so I thought to myself why don’t I go up and see Eliot and ask him how his appointment went.
She didn’t say I hope you don’t mind me dropping in or don’t mind me being a sticky beak but Eliot was surprised with how he felt. For once he didn’t mind. He was sort of glad that she had decided to pay him a visit. He wanted to tell her his news. Not just about where he was going but more importantly about how he wouldn’t be around so soon she would be wasting her time coming up and knocking on his door. He knew that he was being a little nasty. She made herself comfortable in the single lounge chair and she fingered her pearl necklace and pulled her dress down a little, her knees tight together and smiled at him in expectation.
Yes you can ask. I met with an Indian doctor this morning. He has set up a school in India, in the village where he was born. If you know where Varanasi is, then the village is about fifty kilometres south west of there. He wanted me to set up an English program in the school. I have said yes.
I don’t believe you Eliot. Surely you are a little old to be setting off for India on your own. Of course I don’t know exactly how old you are but I’m guessing that you will never see sixty again.
Eliot was reminded of one of his old teachers of long ago, how she spoke to the pupils but he couldn’t recall her name and now he would always think of Eleanor as Miss Dobson.
Well however old I am, I am going and I will be away for two months at least.
Do you think that it is a good idea to be going off on your own, so soon after the death of your wife? You will be very lonely I think.
Any chance that Eliot was going to offer her a yo yo or a soft drink had gone. What right did she have to bring up Marion’s name and this wasn’t the first time. Soon after he moved in, Eleanor had invited him downstairs for dinner and she had said that the caretaker told me that you moved here recently when your wife was dying. The caretaker! Whose business was it? I’m so sorry to hear that Eliot she said with a genuine tone. But there is no need for you to be lonely, is there Eliot. As long as I’m close by. Eliot felt rudeness coming on all over him and he said that he didn’t want to talk about his late wife. It was a private matter. His