The Division Wall
Nihar Apte

It was one hot summer Sunday morning in the month of May. The war between India and China was going strong. It had been two months since Dan had graduated from College. He lay on his bed thinking what he should do with his life and wishing he had been a better student in college. Now he lives in a small apartment with a broken bed, fridge, T.V and a few tube lights and flickering bulbs. The only things that were in one piece were his toilet and his own body. He worked as a part time salesman at 4000 rupees a month and didn't even have enough money to feed himself. As much as he wanted to meet his parents, he knew it was a farfetched thought to even think about. He moved out of his parents' house 5 years ago to join college in a big city. His decision to move out also included his decision to be independent and not rely on his parents anymore for financial support. So even the option of borrowing money from his parents was out of question as Dan was a man of principles and he wouldn't deviate from them. He put his hands in back pocket to check his wallet. All he could find is a few rupees and his visiting card which was his only hope for survival. Hopeless, he lay down on his bed stared at the ceiling with the hot sun hitting his face and the sound of gunshots and a creaking fan enter his ears. Just then someone knocked at the door very hard. Dan yelled out frustration, "KYA HAI? KYA CHAHIYE?". It was the newspaper man Charan Singh who replied, "Bhaiya jee! Teen din se paper nahi uthaye ho aap! Aaj ka paper utha lo aur mere paise mujhe aaj de do". Dan rolled his eyes and got up to open the door. he said to charan," arrey charan sorry yaar tujhpe chillaya mai. Bohot dimaag kharab ho raha hai aaj kal. Ma baap se milne tak ke paise nahi hai mere paas. Bol kitne dene hai maine tujhe". "Is mahine ke sau rupay hai aur pichle mahine ke eksau bees". Dan looked into his wallet saw that he only had 300 rupees for the next three days till he got his salary with increment. With a half pleading and promising expression he said "Yaar ek hafte mein meri salary badh rahi hai, tu please mujhse paise agle sunday le ja yaar. PLEASE!". Charan said "Kya bhaiya jee? Pichle mahine bhi aapne yahi baat kahi thi. aap haina ek achhi naukri kyu nahi dhoond lete jaha aapko achhe paise mile?". Dan said to him "yaar sorry yaar. tu khush rehne ke liye kya lega? Chal yeh le, mehengi Cigarette pee le aaj tu. Meri bandi ne diya thaa mujhe!" With that Charan Singh took the cigarette and went away. Dan took the Newspapers of the last few days and went back inside slamming the door shut. He goes back to his bed and opens the newspaper and scans through the classified advertisement section to look for some jobs.  A big advertisement issued by the government caught his eye.  The advertisement was offering all the citizens of the city a job of building a wall around the border of the city with a pay of 8000 rupees a month. Dan got excited looking at the salary and nature of the job and immediately circled on to the advertisement. He noted down the number in his phonebook and gave the office a ring. He called them up, fixed a time for his interview in the office and left his house.

Dan waited outside the office on a bench four times as long as the length of his house. The Bench was full and he was standing next to the last person on the bench. Restless, he looked around the run down and worn out office, he watched the clock ticking and observed each and every tiny movement on the clock. Next he counted the number of flies around him and then watched them do their thing. He amused himself by watching two flies fight and the third fly excrete on the bench. Then he stared at a lizard in the office crawling around the walls eating insects of different shapes and sizes.  Finally after one and a half hours, it was time for him to go for the interview and the medical test. First came the medical test where they asked him to lift a few weights and run on the tread mill. He was also questioned about his medical history. After that came the interview where he was questioned about his family, skill based training and financial status. After the whole process, it was decided that Dan would have to go through three months of training before he could actually start with work since he did have enough skill for construction work. His training was going to start in two weeks' time. He thanked the officer and walked out with his appointment letters and a smile on his face. As soon as he reached home, he kept his letters safely and went to the PCO to make a phone call. He dialled the number and waited for someone to answer. A girl answered the call. As soon the she said 'Hello', Dan yell 'Sweetheart jaldi ghar aaja. I have some really exciting news to tell you'. Anushka his girlfriend asked 'Par hua kya? Tell me na'.
'Nai nai, Not like this. You come home as fast as you can'.
'Yeah ok. Chill. Abhi nikalti hu mai ghar se'
Anushka was a tall and skinny girl who went to college with Dan. They both were in the same class for two subjects. She came from a very rich family but at the same time was very humble and focussed. That's the reason Dans financial status didn't matter to her one bit and even Dan didn't take advantage of her wealth. They both truly loved each other for who they were.
While anushka was on her way, Dan was in his kitchen preparing a quick evening snack and a drink for anushka and himself. He refrigerated the sandwiches and the iced tea and waited for anushka while strumming his guitar.
The doorbell rang and Dan rushed to open the door. He opened the door, lifted anushka in the air and swung her around. He asked her to sit on his bed while he got the sandwiches and the iced tea.  He told her everything that happened at the interview and the job he had got. She congratulated him and told him that she was really proud of him. After they had their sandwiches and their iced tea, she asked him, "Dan, what about our dream of becoming the biggest music duo? When will we focus of that if you are going to take up this construction work"?
"We'll work something out anushka! At this point of time, I really need the money that they are offering so I can go meet my parents once at least. I haven't seen them in ages! Besides if I keep saving out of this money, I might be able to buy ourselves some better audio equipment. Just don't worry about it. I promise we'll figure something out". With that he gave her a big hug and kissed her. They then spent the rest of the evening playing guitar and sing songs that they wrote togeather.

3 months later, Dan started with work. He had completed his training and had become an expert at construction work. At the same time, there was a protest which went against the construction cause they thought it would affect the trade and transport from one city to another very badly. The wall was supposed to be constructed along the border of the city. Around more than half the city's population had applied for the job and consisted of all the lower middle class and lower class people who lived in and around the city. Everyone was asked to gather around in a hall so the head engineer, divisional engineers and the supervisors could divide the workers according to the different areas where the work was being done. After the division, every group was addressed separately by their sub engineers and supervisors instructing them what was the goal they were supposed to reach on a per day basis and the perquisites they were going to get. The groups were further divided into smaller groups according the work they were supposed to do. Work started from day one. The workers turned out to be pretty efficient and effective indeed. The wall was progressing faster than expected. The head engineer and the board of the construction company were so impressed by the workers that they decided to raise the salary of the workers by a thousand five hundred rupees. Worked continued with a constant high energy from all the workers and the wall was progressing really fast. To the company's surprise, the wall was completed within 6 months which was 3 months before the enemy could attack the city.
By the end of the project, Dan had much more money than he had earlier. He had earned fifty thousand rupees including all his bonuses and savings. Dan hadn't changed his lifestyle one bit just so that he could save up on money. He kept aside fifteen thousand rupees to buy new audio equipment for anushka and his music project; he kept ten thousand rupees for his travel to meet his parents and to give them some of the amount he had earned. The remaining twenty-five thousand he left for himself for his daily expenditures. Dan at that point of time was so happy that he felt he had attained nirvana. To celebrate his wellbeing, he called anushka and went out for lunch with her to a nice restaurant. That day he had had good food after a very long time. After a while, Dan went to the cities central bus stand to book tickets to his parent's village. The officer at the bus stand told him that before getting the ticket, he'd have to get a transit permit from the town hall to go in and out of the city. That's when he realised that he might have made the wrong choice by supporting and working towards building the wall but right now he was just happy that he had managed to earn a lot more money than what he used to earn about a year back. Dan headed straight for the Town Hall where he applied for the transit permit. There they asked him several questions about the purpose of his travel, how long he was going to go away for and also about his identity to make sure that he isn't an enemy informer, a terrorist or an illegal dealer of arms and ammunitions. After the hour long interrogation, they told him to come after two weeks to get his permit. He begged and pleaded them to try to get the permit earlier than that but they refused. He came back after two weeks and they again pushed the dated by another two weeks. Frustrated, he created a huge scene in the town hall and left. Next when he came to the office they said that he'd have to apply again because his application got lost in transit. This was when Dan really lost his cool and he fired each and every single officer in the town hall. He also asked the other applicants to leave and told that there is no chance they would get their permit and that they'd rather jump across the wall or drill a hole in it so they could get out of the city illegally. With that, he stormed out of the office.

When he got home, he regretted his decision of joining the wall construction project and thought how he should have joined the few organisations who were protesting against the construction of the wall. He realised that he has blinded himself from his main objective of earning the money. He got blinded by his greed for more money and a better lifestyle.