“Not once, Gohar Jan,” Banday Ali said. “You did not allow her to perform even once. You denied her all she had longed for since she was a child.”
Gohar Jan now looked up and met Banday Ali’s angry gaze.
“How could I, Banday Ali?” Gohar Jan said slowly, “How could I impose a destiny on her, or tie her to the kotha with any bonds? Don’t you realize she was given to me in trust.”
With those words Gohar Jan finally answered every question Banday Ali had asked himself for the last twenty-three years on the subject of the girl who had been abandoned at the kotha’s steps, and Gohar Jan’s treatment of her.
Gohar Jan’s statement left Banday Ali deeply perplexed. It would have baffled anyone who knew her as well as Banday Ali did, and thought her dedication to the kotha life and her art to be absolute and above all other considerations.
Banday Ali did not say anything. He needed time to mull over in silence what Gohar Jan had said. But as he turned to go something occurred to him. He stopped, looked at Gohar Jan, and asked, “What if the promise of happiness turns out to be false for her? What if she returns, Gohar Jan?”
Gohar Jan spoke softly and reluctantly, as if uttering the words might make the dreaded thing happen. “If she returned, Banday Ali…she could have what is not allowed any tawaif in the same circumstances: she could have the life she thought she wanted.”
Challenge
About a month before Ustad Ramzi’s scheduled bout, Tamami took along some trainees and visited Imama’s neighborhood. There they ran into a group of pahalwans from Imama’s clan. The exchange of taunts between the two rival groups became heated.
The noise reached Imama’s nearby akhara, and Imama came out with his son and clan members to investigate. He tried to break up the quarrel but Tamami used the opportunity to challenge him to a bout. The trainees in Tamami’s group started shouting with joy. Imama’s son pushed forward to accept the challenge instead, but Tamami refused, claiming his right to fight Imama as the blood brother of the title holder.
This unexpected challenge surprised Imama and his clan. They smelled a conspiracy in Tamami’s visit. They had heard rumors that Ustad Ramzi was using turmeric poultices on his knees to alleviate pain, and was not doing some of the leg exercises usually included in the preparations for a bout. They suspected Ustad Ramzi was afraid of facing Imama and had tried to evade the showdown by setting up Imama against Tamami.
Tamami had challenged Imama before his clan. Imama could have used his authority as a senior pahalwan to spurn the challenge, but by refusing the challenge of Ustad Ramzi’s blood brother he risked losing face.
Imama nodded to his trainers. They told Tamami that the next morning their clan elders would call on Ustad Ramzi to settle the details of the bout.
In a jubilant mood, Tamami started for his akhara with his retinue of trainees. One of the pahalwans in their group borrowed a bicycle from a friend and pedaled away to take the news to Ustad Ramzi.
When Tamami and his friends, and a few other trainees who had joined them on their way, drew close to the akhara, they found Ustad Ramzi waiting for them at the gate.
“Who gave you permission to go to Imama’s akhara and challenge him? Who gave you leave?”
Everyone became silent.
“Ustad…” Tamami looked stupefied by Ustad Ramzi’s outburst. “I was just passing by when…”
“Don’t lie to me!” Ustad Ramzi roared.
Tamami’s jubilant spirits died. Sensing that he had committed something unforgivable, he decided to confess.
“I went there to challenge him, Ustad,” Tamami said softly.
“You do not have the freedom to challenge Imama. You are no match for him. You will bring disgrace to the clan if you fight him.” Ustad Ramzi’s words rang in the akhara.
“I did it for the clan,” Tamami retorted, mustering his failing courage. “I can defeat Imama!”
“It was not your place. I am the head of the clan. Never again interfere in matters that are my responsibility. I am not dead yet.”
Tamami made an effort to sound confident. “I can defeat Imama!”
One of the trainees shouted, “Tamami will defeat Imama, Ustad Ramzi, you’ll see.”
“Go back to your rooms, you idiots! You have to wake up early tomorrow morning,” Ustad Ramzi shouted at the trainees.
Leaving them standing there, Ustad Ramzi returned to his room and the trainees retired to their quarters with Tamami. When they had recovered from the outburst they tried to cheer Tamami up, but Ustad Ramzi’s rebuke had crushed him. He slept in the trainees’ quarters that night.
The next day Imama’s clan elders called on Ustad Ramzi to settle the details. The bout was to be held within ten days at an industrial plot rented for the purpose. A man named Gulab Deen who had recently set himself up as a sports promoter agreed to publicize the event.
❖
Tamami’s enthusiasm for the fight with Imama had begun to wane from the moment Ustad Ramzi rebuked him. He made his preparations for the encounter but his heart was no longer in it, even though he wished to prove his brother wrong.
Ustad Ramzi had changed the time for his exercises and removed his exercise equipment from the center of the akhara so that Tamami could have the place in the morning hours. But he did not supervise Tamami’s exercises as some had expected. When approached by his clan elders, Ustad Ramzi refused. He made no secret of his reasons for doing so either: “To train him myself for this fight,” he said, “would be the same as to approve his actions. I will not be able to show Imama my face if I did.”
The clan elders no longer pressed Ustad Ramzi. Kabira, a senior pahalwan, was appointed as Tamami’s trainer instead.
Disdain
On the day of the bout, Ustad Ramzi did not accompany Tamami to the akhara. When Kabira came to request his attendance, Ustad Ramzi only replied: “I will not go to witness my clan’s humiliation!”
After consulting with the elders of both clans, promoter Gulab Deen had made admissions free. Although few people turned up to see the fight, the stout promoter looked happy. Promoters were a new phenomenon in the sport. When the introductions were made, Gulab Deen used the occasion to talk about his work.
Imama stood calmly with his trainer, but his son glared at Tamami with ill-concealed hostility.
The fight itself barely lasted a few minutes. As Tamami was making an attempt to secure a hold, Imama threw him off balance. Following with a powerful sweep of his legs Imama toppled him over. As he fell, both of Tamami’s shoulders touched the ground. Only when Tamami saw Kabira entering the akhara did he understand that it was over. It all happened so quickly that he did not even have time to realize that he had lost.
Imama’s jubilant clan surrounded him. His son stepped toward Tamami, but Imama stopped him, and pulled him away. Tamami was galled by the triumphant and disdainful look in his eyes.
Imama was carried in a procession to his akhara, on the shoulders of his clan members.
Feeling too ashamed to return to the akhara, Tamami spent the night at Kabira’s house. Later in the afternoon of the next day, when he knew Ustad Ramzi would be taking his rest, Tamami returned to the enclosure.
A few trainees were exercising in the akhara. Ustad Ramzi came out of his room but ignored him. Tamami noticed that Ustad Ramzi’s exercise equipment had been returned to the center of the akhara.
❖
When Imama and his clan did not see Ustad Ramzi at the bout, they realized that Tamami’s challenge to Imama was not orchestrated by him. Nevertheless, rumors about a conspiracy hatched by Ustad Ramzi continued to spread.