A Short Story by Indian Author Joy J. Kaimaparamban, author of “The Ayurvedic Healer.”

There were many tea shops and hotels in the market. Maathen was the man who had been helping the people of the shops by bringing water from the well. Whenever he went for that purpose he used to take a pulley and a folded rope and two metal pots in his hands. As the teashops and hotels began work earlier in the morning he had to supply them water earlier.

An old man was there, Prabhakaran’s father. For three years he was in bed. Prabhakaran was not satisfied in taking his father before only a doctor. So with the period of two years, the old man was laid in four hospitals. Prabhakaran did not trust in the ability of doctors in full. It caused the shifting of his father to various hospitals.

The City lay rather in a high level than the surrounding places. And the black colored tar road was a wide one. As it was dawn vehicles had begun to start journey. People stood before a teashop, which was in the lower side of the road. It was the teashop of Keasavan who arrived in the City before some years. As he could purchase some cents of land beside the teashop, which he started in small rate was expanded with a brick made basement and planks nailed walls around.