In a while, I had 2 youngsters in their 20s walking up and settling their eyes on the seat next to me. Malaysia is a place where you find most Indians from the south of India.I noticed that these 2 guys were slim,well built with a square jaw ,gelled hair with chunky jewelley hanging from their neck. Their accent however was a pure giveaway and being an Indian it didn't take much for me to decipher that they were pure punjabis. I have spent almost all my life in the north and find myself identifying more with the north though my ancestry takes my roots to south. Once they were seated, I went back to reading while the cabin crew started their insipid safety instructions.I am not a guy who normally initiates a talk with strangers unless it serves the purpose of sorting a problem out. I am not antisocial ( no one has actually said that so far at least!) but maybe I can be slotted as a person who prefers to be in the company of his own thoughts than that of people.
Anyways, I took an exception from my routine behaviour and went ahead and broke the ice in hindi - "Hi, are you guys from north India? Where are you heading to?" Pat came a smile hearing me speak Hindi and the thinner of the two blurted out - "Going to New Delhi.We are from Punjab. Actually both of us just met in the airport but happen to be from Punjab and coincidentally also have seats adjacent to each other"
Having hit a bullseye as to their origins, I went ahead and bragged that I had spent my time in Chandigarh (the capital of Punjab) earlier-a fact which I am very proud of and feel fortunate about. I thought this conversation was heading towards the regular "my place, your place, what's the weather and how's the food" kind of conversation with a curry of words sautéed in niceties for a fellow countryman. But I was in for a surprise.
I asked the youngster the next question-"So, where are you coming from? " I was hardly interested in the answer as I expected it to be Kuala Lumpur- the Malaysian capital with a good amount of expats employed for hard labour.....these guys were north indians in Malaysia flying back to India- it was pretty obvious that the men were here for work with the agenda of adding some cash to their bank balance .But then the guy sported a very plastic smile and replied -" I was in the prison for the last 26 days. Was released just now". I didn't take the guy seriously (who would??) and gave him a shut-the-hell-up look and smiled back. He went on -"You don't believe me ? Really I am coming from the prison ..."
I played along -" Really? Why were you jailed?" He said -" I was caught on an expired visa and jailed.I came to Malaysia on a visit visa 6 months back through an agent who promised me a good job which didn'it materialize. The agent vanished with my one lakh rupees the moment I landed here and I stayed put with a friend for a while and worked for an employer who never paid me enough or got me a visa to work. Once the visa expired, I got back with the friend and got into drugs..actually I was sent to Malaysia by my parents because I am heavily into drugs and my parents thought I would be able to get rid of it by leaving the friend circle back home in India. But I managed to find my source and got back to it. I kept asking my friend to get my visa extended and everytime he would just say - don't worry, nothing will happen, I will settle it ....though he never did . 26 days back, I was caught by some policemen on a surprise check and was taken into custody"
By now, I was all ears and pretty sure that the guy wasn't talking crap and seriously telling about his life. For those wondering if I felt scared and was on guard being seated next to a drug addict and a self confessed convict released from jail just a while ago, well no... I wasn't scared.Being a doctor, we come in close contact with convicts and prison inmates in heavy chains and handcuffs in the hospital when they develop any ailment related to our speciality. But I surely got interested enough to dig deeper into this unexpectedly interesting encounter. I tried to hone up all my journalistic inquisitiveness and thought of all the questions which a journo would think of asking in this situation. So my next question was - "How is the condition in the prison in Malaysia and what's a routine day like?" He started to shake his head as he replied- "The condition in the jails are horrible. We were around 50 guys holes up in a small room and there was nothing to kill time except empty vacant stares. Many guys were from Indonesia as they tend to easily enter illegally via boats and some of their borders are not more than 30-45 minutes away by ferry. We were given a small cake of soap and a toothbrush with a broken handle ( since the authorities fear that it might be used as a weapon to attack or escape ) which were our only possession. We only got to bathe on one of our luckier days and sleep was bartered. The guys who sleep in the night had to stand in the day to let the other lot sleep who stood awake at night. There was just not enough space for all to sleep at the same time. Food was served once a day. The same menu everyday- a very small bowl of rice with a dry fish on top...no curry ...bland and tasteless. Eat once a day and relive the memories when hunger strikes again because the next instalment of meals would only be served the next day... Only one glass of water at lunch was given and breakfast was a cup of black tea ...period....
I was zapped hearing the inhumane conditions of stay and went on to ask -"Were you given any task to perform to kill time and earn your bread in jail?" He said - "No ....thats only for the hardcore criminals, we were in the illegal immigrants cell and all we had with us to kill time was this " He deftly produced 2 rubber bands and skilfully showed me some amazing patterns and made the bands dissapear from one hand and magically made them appear in the other. "These rubberbands came with the food packets and many long term inmates (some of them were there for 3 to 6 years) have come up with some amazing rubber band tricks which they taugh to us ."
I asked -" What language did they communicate with these immigrants since they were all expats and I dont think they would all be knowing Malay?" He replied-"Oh they hardly spoke, most of the times their sticks and batons are what they used to communicate with us,hitting us everytime they wanted to interrogate and when they really had something to speak in words they spoke malay....they didnt care if we understood or not"
I was pretty shaken and taken aback by these details. And took sometime to get back to asking my next question - " You must be so glad to be finally out. How did that happen?" He gave a genuine smile and replied- "It feels amazing to see the sun and nature after 26 days. You never know its worth otherwise. Thanks to the friend I was put up with, my family got the information that I was holed up for all the wrong reasons and I dont know how but they worked things out and got my bail. Had to spend another couple of lakhs but thank God I am out... Though I was pretty convinced that I would be spending my lifetime inside." I couldnt stop myself from blurting " Thank your luck that you didnt get caught for possession of drugs. It would have sealed your life in prison!" He sheepishly agreed. I good heartedly said- "As a doctor and an Indian, my sincere advise to you- keep away from drugs and everything illegal. You have seen the worst from close quarters" . Immediately, he caught his ears with both hands,vigorously shaking his head replied -"NEVER AGAIN!"
It was time for the refreshments to be served and I am sure my Indian friends couldn't have asked for anything better to get them to celebrate the freedom. They went on to watch some punjabi movie on their phone while I got back to pondering on this information tsunami which was served in a short time.......
