Opening paragraphs of LAMCHWA

Nature was a silent spectator that day. India was celebrating its 47^th Independence Day and it was a very hot day there on that afternoon of 15^th August 1993. The heat gave no sign of the heavy downpour that had occurred two days ago. Four men were sweating profusely while they carried their baskets loaded with coal and dumped it onto a Shaktiman lorry parked beside the coal dump. Two other men were using shovels to fill empty baskets with coal. They were all daily-wage earners – happy to get some work on a day that was supposed to be a holiday.

The lorry was now half-laden with coal and it would take another hour or more to fill up. The driver of the lorry was seated on the stump of a felled pine tree watching over them disinterestedly. He searched through his pockets for his pack of kwai[1] and his beedi. There was neither a breeze nor the chirping of birds. The only sound that filled the air was that of the ‘sak...sak…’ of the shovels loading coal, the grunts of the men as they lifted their baskets onto their heads and the dull ‘thud’ of the coal as it was dumped into the lorry. The faint sound of a matchstick striking the side of the matchbox could be heard for a fleeting moment.

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[1] A local legendary masticator consisting of a piece of betel nut and betel leaf rubbed with slaked lime.