Mangal used to work as a driver for a private company for past 6 years without any pay hike and when he demanded one, he was shown his place by the company's'Human Resource' department which resulted in an ugly spat with the manager and ultimately one night he beat the manager black and blue - The incident happened when Mangal was called late at night by a clerk to report to the company to drop the manager home, who was apparently working on the salaries to be disbursed for the month. Mangal refused telling the duty hours had been over, they should call some other driver or taxi instead of disturbing him, with that he gave a'cuss' word for the manager. The word finally reached to whom it was meant for and Mangal was summoned right at the moment, after that what happened had made a good story to discuss over lighting'bidis' and chewing'areca nuts' by the'herd of sheep', who were often heard agreeing'Sahi kiya Mangal bhai ne!','Manager isi layaq tha' or disagreeing,'Susre ne naukri pe laat maar li!' by such comments.
Well!. Mangal was held convict of assault to causing grievous injury under a few sections of IPC and was awarded six months of rigorous imprisonment. With his belongings in a tin box, Mangal was escorted to the Jail, The constable while registering his goods noted with a chuckle that Mangal was a post-graduate, but that made an impression.
Mangal worked as instructed, sometimes carpentry, sometimes cleaning bathrooms, etc. He remained aloof and silent counting days in leisure. The Jailer noted his calm nature which was quite opposite to the conviction being carried out - the case of a man driven to such fury he couldn't contain.
Jailer gave him the work to teach in the correction home for juveniles, at first it came as a sheer shock for Mangal who had dreamed of becoming a teacher when he was in college but never had he thought that his break would come in a jail.
In the beginning it was difficult to monitor the miscreants but gradually most of them grew fond of Mangal and the tuition session became more of a congregational sort where Mangal told stories of PremChand,Tolstoy, Thakur, O.Hnery, etc. He became a reverential figure among the fellow in-mates for whom he gave a'sermon' in the morning.
Good times go fast.
The day of release came, Mangal's mind was uneasy to go out to the society who made him just another worthless graduate among countless others.
He looked back at the gate, it was reminiscent to the day, seven years ago when he was leaving his village bag and baggage.
