Chapter 6 (The bombs of laughter)

The workers from the Radha mine were crowded. All of them were looking at the “Master,” who was working inside the mine and looking here and there.

The staff and the sepoys yelled at the workers to focus on their work. But could not take their eyes away from the “Master,” All the Sepoys and staff respected this white-skinned, golden-haired, and pointy-nosed Master as Bhagavan (God). Whenever the Master scolded them in English, they replied with a “Yes,” Sometimes, the staff scolded the workers in front of the Master for no reason.

“It was your carelessness that caused the deaths,” they said. Little Muthee was looking at the Master while doing his work.

Ratika was cooking happily in her tiny room. That morning, Ratika and a group of housewives made their way to the bungalows of the British after hearing that the Masters were coming. When the Bungalows had cooked, the housewives went to the nearby junk heap. There, the housewives picked up the leftover foods of the Masters. It was a struggle. And Ratika, an early bird, got the best leftovers. Lamb bones, pongy vegetables, and cut potatoes were the prizes for her earliness. In her tiny room, she started boiling the lamb bones in a clay pot, using dried cow feces as her fuel. In the afternoon, she would fry the vegetables and potatoes with the oils coming from the sewers of the Bungalows. The food given to the workers was insufficient, so the housewives had to cook like this.Smokes were coming from the workers’ room.

In the mine, the British Master could observe and point here and there for only twenty minutes. He began to cough and sneeze. The Master’s lungs couldn’t resist the dangerous Sulphide (that the workers had to breathe for the whole day) for twenty minutes. His face turned red, and he had to run outside the mine.

The workers wanted to laugh at the fragility of the Master, but they couldn’t. They felt a sore feeling in their mind.

“How could this kind of poor people control and enslave us?” Muthee thought honestly and laughed. The child workers next to Muthee joined his laughing. And the other workers, too, couldn’t control their laughter. Muthee’s laughing made the bombs of laughter explode. The waves of laughter even shook the instruments from the mine.

The Master and his companion couldn’t take up the laughter. A group of Sepoy entered the mine, aimed the workers with their guns, and yelled,

“Stop laughing!”

The tips of guns stopped the waves of laughter. And the work continued.

Mr. Gratville, the Master, had to breathe the outside air while coughing. His face was red because of anger. A mining staff handed him a piece of towel. Mr. Gratville used it to cover his face.

“Rude creatures! Those black dogs laughed at me! Those creatures deserve to be dead in accidents. Board members always assign me to deal with these nasty creatures! You all must search for the one who started laughing. If not, you’ll lose half of your salaries!” he commanded.

“Yes, sir,” the staff said and moved from Gratville’s sight before he drove them all. Next, the upper-ranked staff will scold the lower ranks. The lower ranks will put pressure on sepoys. And so, the circle of bureaucracy turned itself.