The Journey - A Short Story

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  Two swift years had gone by since his father had died. The family had meanwhile moved to a small informal township, where Priya sought lodging amongst her mother’s family. The family lived in a wood and iron home, on the banks of a wide river near Pinetown. The vast shanty dwelling was home to four families. Each family tried to live independent of each other. But the endless squabbling made life painful for Priya and her fragile family.

  Priya hadn’t been able to afford the monthly rent for their modest cottage. Some of Mahen’s activist friends had raised some funds for the family, but this too had run out. The plucky efforts of Shami to bring in extra money failed to appease the landlord’s impatience. The family had to accept a totally unaccustomed lifestyle. There was no electricity and the only supply of clean water was an outside tap that was shared by the whole household. A single toilet at the back of the property took care of the ablution needs of all the occupants of the household. It was invaded by flies and maggots. There was an outside bathroom made of timber, which did not have a roof. Each family maintained a huge drum that held their storage of water. This caused hostility because some families, instead of topping up their own, helped themselves to water from the other drums. The younger boys gathered firewood from along the river banks. The outside fireplace was a place of gathering in the evenings.

  The elders of the families had their own rooms, which they shared with their daughters. The smaller boys all slept together cramped in one small room, some on beds and others on the floor. The grown-up boys slept on a divan in the sitting room. There was a single proper kitchen and two makeshift kitchens to cater for the needs of this huge household. In this spectacle of living together, daily bickering was rampant.