Greentext · 5 minAfter Nine

>be me, 9 years, 1996

>we live in rajahmundry, two streets behind the bus complex

>no phone in our house

>phones are for doctors and the municipal chairman

>tatayya and ammamma live in the village

>near amalapuram, three hours by the red bus

>in the village also nobody has a phone

>except karanam garu

>karanam garu has a black phone on a stool in his verandah

>covered with a cloth, flowers stitched on it

>every saturday night we call that phone

>from the std booth at our corner

>yellow board, red letters

>STD ISD PCO

>sai communications

>same man runs the xerox machine also

>his name is ramesh, everybody calls him booth ramesh

>the booth is a glass cabin with a door that does not close fully

>inside there is a small fan, a small stool

>and a machine with red numbers

>the red numbers are the most important thing in that cabin

>they show how much money is going

>before nine o clock the red numbers run like a train

>after nine o clock it is one fourth rate

>so we go only after nine

>nanna, me, sometimes amma

>at quarter to nine we are already standing outside

>with four or five other families also standing

>everybody watching the clock on ramesh's wall

>that clock is five minutes fast

>ramesh says it is correct

>nobody fights with ramesh at quarter rate time

>we go in at 9:05 by his clock

>nanna takes out a small diary

>presses the numbers slowly, reading each one

>first call is the short call

>karanam garu's servant boy picks up

>nanna says "this is murthy, call our father"

>the boy says "call back in fifteen minutes"

>nanna cuts, red numbers stop

>one rupee forty paise

>we sit on the step outside and eat groundnuts

>then the real call

>tatayya comes on the line

>tatayya says "haa" very loudly

>he thinks a phone needs shouting

>ammamma never comes to the phone

>she says the voice in it sounds like a ghost

>tatayya and nanna talk about rain, paddy, the buffalo, the pension

>then nanna gives me the phone for the last one minute

>"talk fast" he whispers, eyes on the red numbers

>i say "tatayya, i got ninety two in maths"

>he says "very good, very good, come in summer"

>every week i say something

>every week he says "very good, very good, come in summer"

>the whole call is three minutes, sometimes four

>nanna counts the change from his shirt pocket

>we walk home

>this goes on for one whole year

>then in july nanna has office tour to vizag, two weeks

>he gives me the diary and a ten rupee note

>"you call on saturday, after nine, tell them we are fine"

>i am 9 and i am going to the booth alone

>i feel like a district collector

>saturday i reach the booth at 7:10

>much too early

>i sit on the step and watch ramesh's clock

>i think, what if the karanam boy goes to sleep before nine

>what if nobody calls tatayya

>i decide to make the short call now, at full rate

>just one line, "call tatayya, i will call at nine"

>i go in, i press the numbers from the diary

>it rings two times

>the karanam boy picks up

>i say "this is murthy garu's son, please call tatayya, i will call again at nine"

>the boy says "he is here"

>"what"

>"he is here only, sitting on the verandah"

>"since when"

>"since seven"

>"every saturday he comes at seven and sits near the phone"

>"ammamma sends coffee in a steel tumbler"

>"he says if the call comes early and nobody is here, it will go waste"

>the red numbers are running

>i am not seeing them

>then a different voice, close and loud

>"who is it, is it the boy"

>he has taken the phone from the boy's hand

>"haa, tatayya"

>i do not know what to say

>i forget about the ninety two in maths

>"tatayya, you come at seven?"

>"what seven, i just now came" he says

>"the boy said seven"

>"that boy talks too much" he says

>red numbers say four rupees twenty paise

>i have ten rupees

>i talk anyway

>nanna went to vizag, the cooker whistle broke

>the neighbour's dog had five puppies, one is black

>he says "haa" after every single thing

>he does not say very good even once

>he asks "did you eat"

>he asks "is amma eating"

>at six rupees i say "i will cut, tatayya"

>"cut, cut, money is going" he says

>he does not cut

>i can hear him breathing on the other side

>i cut

>ramesh tears the slip from the machine

>six rupees eighty paise

>i give the ten, he gives three twenty back

>"you are not calling at nine?" he asks

>"no" i say

>i walk home with the slip in my fist

>amma asks why i came so early

>i tell her tatayya was already there

>she does not look up from the chapatis

>"he is always already there" she says

>"from seven. ammamma told me at sankranti"

>"why nobody told me"

>she rolls the next chapati

>nanna came back from vizag on a thursday

>saturday i told him about seven

>he did not say anything

>he looked at the clock on our wall for some time

>next saturday we went to the booth at 7:15

>full rate

>ramesh said "murthy garu, rate is full now"

>nanna said "i know"

>he did not look at the red numbers even once that night

>i still have some of ramesh's slips in my old geometry box

>one of them says nine minutes twelve seconds

>thirty one rupees sixty paise

>seven sixteen pm