The Brave New World

After Madan and his wife Kali visited Samir"s settlement and met Rani, it was quickly decided that they would move there. The reason for this was the abundance of fish in the creek. Madan and Kali had enough food, including fish, to eat well where they"d settled. But they needed to catch much more than they ate, because things were becoming more and more grim in the Old World.

The small improvements that had taken place, such as partial restoration of water and electricity supply, were more than offset by scarcity of food. And although government offices and some schools resumed functioning, most of the private businesses didn"t. This included the logistics center where Samir and Rani used to work. Even the watchman wasn"t there any more.

When Samir had failed to find the watchman on his consecutive visit, it became obvious that both he and Rani had lost their jobs. They increased the amount of food sent from the New World; each day, Rani set out on the long journey to the open-air market to sell some. And each day, she sold everything she"d brought within minutes.

A trader that arrived at the market with food to sell was immediately besieged by customers. Whatever he brought was sold in an instant. Prices were bordering on the ridiculous. Rani got a hundred rupees for a single mango, and a thousand for a kilo of fish. This was even though Mumbai"s waterfront was thick with people trying their hand at fishing, and some of them sold the fish they"d caught in Mumbai"s markets.

Rani spent the money she earned wisely. She bought a couple of extra tanks of gas for the stove. She bought kerosene, candles, and matches, and she"d even managed to get a two-liter can of cooking oil. She"d also bought packets of seeds for a variety of vegetables: being in great demand, these were particularly expensive. By that time, everyone in Mumbai was growing food. Whole families shared a single room in their houses and apartments, while the remaining rooms were taken up by soil-filled containers in which they grew vegetables and other edible plants.

The four of them - Samir, Rani, Madan, and Kali - now survived solely on food sent from the New World. They had enough not to go hungry, although their diet was monotonous. Fish, air potatoes, wild greens, mangoes, coconuts, goat milk and cheese: that was all they had initially. Madan had managed to obtain some rice seedlings, and they replicated a few in the New World. Only a few, because it had become obvious they would quickly run out of the single-use timon implant kits if they didn"t use them sparingly. The four of them had around sixty kits left, and at least a hundred ideas of how to put them to good use.

They also kept an eye out for potential recruits into their colony in the New World. They"d all agreed they would legalize their status the moment Colonial Offices began to function, and then set about growing the population of their little colony. According to the government, that would happen on the first of March. However, there was no information about the cost of a colonial license. The only thing they"d managed to confirm was that colonial license owners would automatically lose the right receive the new guaranteed minimum income payments. But no one knew when the guaranteed income scheme would take effect, or what would be the amount paid out.

Samir, Rani, Madan, and Kali were now all spending the majority of their time in the New World. Their little colony was increasingly prosperous. It also had new tools, thanks to Madan. He"d made knives of hard-baked clay that were much sharper than the crude stone blades they"d been using until then. He also made a few handfuls of small, sharp arrowheads, and within a couple of weeks all of them had serviceable bows.

They also had a couple of nets that made catching fish amazingly easy. They had big, strong baskets and string bags for carrying harvested food, and all the basic agricultural tools: spades, hoes, rakes. They lived in s.p.a.cious huts with floors of thick ceramic tiles and walls of mud-brick. Separate huts were built for storage, and for the communal kitchen that had an oven in addition to a brick fireplace.

Their little goat herd was about to increase: a couple of the does were pregnant. And by the time their third month in the New World drew to a close, it became apparent both Rani and Kali were pregnant, too.

Kali knew enough about midwifery to ensure a happy ending for the pregnancies. But the presence of babies would mean she and Rani wouldn"t be able to work for a while. It put extra stress on the importance of finding reliable recruits for their colony. But Samir was adamant that they shouldn"t even think about it until they"d obtained a colonial license.

"It won"t take long," he argued. "I"m sure they"ll have the system up and running within a couple of months. The government is already setting up settlements in the New World. They are calling them administrative centers."

"I heard them called state capitals," Madan said.

"You heard them called wrong. They might function as capitals in the sense that they will be bigger and better developed than any privately-held settlements. I understand that they are to function as regional centers of trade. But all the settlements founded by individuals like you and me are to be considered independent colonies. It will be up to us how we run ours. We won"t have a governor over our heads telling us what to do."

Madan shook his head when he heard that.

"We might end up with someone telling us what to do anyway," he said. "I told you about the experiences we had back in Khalapur. We really must look into recruiting more people right away. There"s safety in numbers."

"We have to get the licenses first. It really won"t take longer than a couple of months."

"A couple of months here is over a year and a half in the New World."

"I know. But we can"t afford the risks involved. Our own little colony is illegal, you know that. Bringing in extra people increases the chance we"ll be found out. We must keep it all our own little secret until everything is legal and aboveboard."

But just a couple of Old World days later, Samir"s hand was forced.

When Rani arrived at the market with a basket full of fish, she noticed that there were more people around than usual, and that some of them had brought children with them. This was against an unwritten rule of the market. Children often stole food, out of hunger or because they"d been instructed to do so. They weren"t allowed inside the market apart from exceptional cases such as an older child helping a frail parent or grandparent.

But on this day, some of the children present were much too small to help anyone. Rani saw a boy that was barely bigger than a toddler. He was standing by his mother"s hand, holding her hand while she looked around with eyes that were wild with grief, and occasionally stopped pa.s.sing people to talk to them.

Rani"s fish were gone inside five minutes. She had collected nearly three thousand rupees for a couple of dozen of small fish. She spent some time cleaning the fish scales from the basket and was about to go home when a woman with a girl in her early teens stopped by her and said:

"You look like a good person, a good woman. Please don"t go. Please listen to me."

Rani looked at the woman and the girl. They were both thin and looked tired. It was that special tired look that wasn"t caused by labor but by hunger. She wished she hadn"t sold all her fish.

"I"ve got no fish left," she told the woman. "If you promise to be here tomorrow, I"ll keep a couple just for you."

"It"s not about the fish. It is..." She broke off and for a moment it seemed she would start crying. But she recovered control and said, glancing at the girl by her side:

"This is Amrita. She is a good girl. She is obedient and hard-working. Will you please take care of her for me? At least for a month or two. I have two other children. They are younger than her. And we don"t have enough food. You have enough food to sell some in the market. Please. Can you help me? Can you take care of Amrita for me? She will help you with anything you want."

Rani was shocked. She didn"t know what to say. To buy herself some time, she asked:

"You really don"t have anyone else to help you out? A relative, or a neighbor? I and my husband live a long way from here. It will take you half a day every time you want to see her."

"I"m not going to sell my daughter," the woman said and started to cry.

"Sell her? What are you talking about?"

"Many people are selling their children to people who promise to feed them. But I can"t sell my child. All I am asking is that you take her in for a while. You have enough food, and you are a good person. I can see that."

And so, when Samir woke up that evening, he found that his Old World household had increased by one.

He was upset initially. But after he"d listened to Rani"s story, he calmed down. He was silent for a moment after Rani had finished speaking, and looked at Amrita and smiled at her for the first time. She shyly smiled back, and looked down at the ground. Samir turned to Rani and said:

"How long did you agree to take her for? Three months?"

"I promised three months. We can keep her for a longer time if we like. I"m sorry, Samir. I shouldn"t have done it without talking to you first. But I had to decide there and then. And the poor girl was so hungry!"

"You gave her something to eat?"

"Yes, I cooked a good meal and we both ate. I"ve left you plenty. You want to eat right now?"

"Just a moment," Samir said. "Three or four months. Yes, we can manage that. We can work it out. But I need to bring an extra mat from the room upstairs."

He looked at the girl again. She really seemed nice. Rani had said that she was well-behaved and conscientious.

If this was true, she could be very useful. The vegetables he"d planted in the field outside their house needed care. And when Kali and Rani became busy with their babies in the New World, he could really use someone to help run the colony. Amrita was sure to make a good goatherd. And she wouldn"t run around telling everyone in Mumbai about it.

The only problem that Samir could see was convincing Rani to his plan. He"d wait a couple of days; it would be easier after Amrita had been with them for a little while.

He felt the girl"s gaze on him and looked at her and saw that she was smiling. She was pleased to hear that she"d be able to stay with him and Rani. He said:

"Welcome, Amrita. Make yourself at home. I am happy to have you here. Let me get you your sleeping mat. Is it all right if you sleep in that corner over there?"

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