Characters
Mansoor - 34 years old, 5'8", main protagonist.
Sandesh - 35 years old, 5'8", pot-bellied, small time retail shop owner.
Shama - 29 years old, 5'6", 38-30-37, mother of Kusum.
Kusum - Shama and Sandesh's 16 months' old daughter.
Joohi - 24 years old, 5'7", 35-30-35, Shama's spinster sister.
Chameli - 48 years old widow, 5'5", 34-31-37, Shama and Joohi's mother.
Manpreet - 33 years old, 5'5", Mansoor's wife.
Summer
Mansoor had a hard time getting possession of the flat on rent.
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Sandesh was a not-so-ambitious businessman who was happy within his resources. When he had started his shop ten years back, he was the only guy the residents of the locality flocked to, for their daily needs. For three years, this monopoly established him as a fair, honest and helpful person. His increased eligibility got him a beautiful and educated wife, who recalibrated her ambitions from her own job to his household.
Sandesh didn't notice the changes in the society, and by the time his wife Shama realised the plateauing of his business, he had already lost the edge. The blooming education market in the town increased demands for infrastructure from temporary immigrants. While his clientele was almost constant, his profits declined.
When Shama quit her job on account of her pregnancy, Chameli came over to help out her daughter. As Shama was now home, she realised the situation, and convinced Sandesh to join the paying guest market to augment their income. All their reserves went into construction of a guesthouse with six two-room sets adjacent to his home, which he planned to rent out to students.
As Shama became a mother, and both she and the grandmother got involved with the baby and the connected social rituals and responsibilities, Sandesh inaugurated the tenancy and tried to manage it within his limited mental faculties. But he was not well prepared for this new field. By the time Kusum turned one, Sandesh was scraping the barrel financially.
This situation brought Shama's feminine aggression to the fore. She dispatched her mother back to her village as she could manage the home front alone, and became an equal partner in the routine affairs of her husband's enterprise, while indefinitely suspending her plans to rejoin her old vocation. But even after three months of efforts, the accounts had not broken even. Shama realised that the occupancy was low because of his rules- no single occupancy, only boy students, in pairs, not more than six months occupancy to a single tenant, no vehicles, three months' deposit, no physical disability. At first she tried to convince Sandesh to let go of the rules, but even after a month of discussions and arguments, there was no agreement. Instead, cracks appeared in their marital bliss. Finally, Shama went on the offensive, and took control of the Guesthouse by using her daughter's future as the bargaining chip.
Mansoor appeared on the scene at this time.
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Mansoor had joined a construction company after graduation, as a trainee. He had aging parents and two younger brothers to support. He had worked hard, and within three years, had risen to the post of assistant manager. With his revised seven figure annual package, he approached the parents of his college time girlfriend and sought their blessings for the marital union. The marriage was low key as his clan elders didn't endorse love marriages, but the families bowed to the wishes of the couple.
Things had unravelled suddenly. First it was the youngest brother who came under the sway of fundamentalist undercurrents, bringing the family under the scanner of the authorities. Mansoor had no political agenda or affiliations - he had a family to look after. To add to the prevalent tensions, while his parents had been making remarks at their desire for a grandchild, his wife was a rising star, and pregnancy was not an option. So they separated, and then hell had broken loose. Mansoor had become the pawn in the political grindstone between two local religious communities, and had come to the conclusion that the only way left to him was to emigrate. He abandoned his family and ran away across the sub-continent, to the thriving city of education. He had hoped that his qualifications and experience will outweigh his denominations, and once the storm settled in about a year, he would reconsider his decision.
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Mansoor's first aim was to get a dwelling. Walking through the suburbs, he saw a signboard indicating rooms available for hire. There was a small shop on the corner of the compound, manned by a woman. Mansoor took a deep breath and took the plunge. He had to start somewhere, and his instincts told him to trust the situation.
Mansoor : Namaste (greetings), Madam. Are these rooms available for renting?
Shama was pleasantly surprised at the query. The goddess of wealth appeared to have smiled. It was just the previous day that Sandesh had reluctantly agreed to let her handle the guesthouse. She looked at the handsome man's smiling face, and her feminine instincts told her that the man could be trusted.
Shama: Yes. How many people, and for how long?
Mansoor: I only. For at least one year. What is the rent?
Shama : Ten thousand. Three months' deposit.
M: I will take it. But I have only twenty with me at present. I'm yet to get a job.
S: What kind of job?
M: I am a construction engineer.
