Esh represents young & restless youth of India. He has a care free attitude towards life, goes to college, and doesn’t listen to his father. His father is into shoe business and owns a flourishing shoe making company (in Kanpur) which he inherited from his father and has grown it. The father and son have a normal relationship like any other father & his teenage son, where the father wants his son to realize that hard work put in by his grandfather (Purshottam) and his father to be where they presently are, enjoying a healthy and lavish lifestyle.
The one thing common between the father and the son is their love for shoes. Esh is very fond of new designs in shoes, he keeps looking for them in fashion mags and celebrity posts and so does his father.
One day it so happens that father suffers a loss in business which he narrates to his wife and son at the dinner table. Esh just ignores his father’s worries and laughs off telling his dad that he has enough money to overcome the crisis. Shattered by this indifferent attitude of his son, the father stands in front of his father’s photo and cries for help in making his son understand the value of life which he is idling and wasting.
That night was a stormy night with thunderstorm and some ET activity happens in Esh’s room. The next day starts as normal, ESH leaves the home early, his father didn’t go to office that day. Esh enjoys the day with his friends and buys a new expensive watch, when he comes back his father sees the watch and again looks at his father’s photo and murmurs what should I do to make him realize the value of money?
That night while everyone’s asleep a noise comes from the store room in the house, the noise is mild but strong enough to wake only Esh up. Esh goes to have a look in the store room, he sees a box illuminated in an otherwise dark room. He opens the box and sees some pretty old stuff belonging to his grand dad, out of many things there is one wrist watch, the moment he touches the wrist watch he gets an electric sting and falls unconscious.
When he regains consciousness and opens his eyes, he finds himself in India of 1930 in Cawnpore. As he stands on his feet, he sees himself standing in front of a very old styled watch store and sees a tall man at that shop holding the same watch as that of his Grandfather and calling Purshottam to come and see as to how the watch looks on his wrist and there comes a boy of same age as that of Esh running in to the shop happy and excited to get a new watch. Esh is shocked to see his grandfather standing in front of him, of the same age as he is and the man calling Purshottam was his great grandfather who was buying him a watch on the first day of his college.
What that ET activity of the last night had done that the moment Esh touched his grandfather’s watch he went back in time to that very moment when his grandfather wore that watch for the first time.
Esh starts to walk behind Purshottam and his father. He is amazed to see that Purshottam is also fascinated by shoes. Esh spends the whole day roaming in the city and then suddenly a sound starts coming from his pocket, he puts his hand in to see what it was and suddenly he is back in 2015, at the watch shop buying his latest watch. He touched the watch he had bought which was in his pocket.
Totally confused, Esh goes back home and locks himself in his room. That night again he goes into the store and very reluctantly touches the watch again and he gets back to that very moment. He again follows his grandfather and his great grandfather to their home and then suddenly puts his hand in his pocket, touches the watch and he is back to the watch shop. By now Esh has realized what is happening, so he decides to go again and this time he decides to strike a conversation with his Grandfather. This goes on for couple of days when an idea pops up in Esh’s mind to stay with his Grandpa for a bit longer.
Esh strikes a conversation with his grandfather, calls him by his name, tells him a story that how he knew him from early school days and that he has met with an accident and is lost and has nowhere to go, he be-friends him and his grandfather convinces his parents to let Esh stay for a couple of days till he figures out where he has to go. Esh’s great grandfather (a Chilly merchant) generously agrees to keep him at his house, after all in 1930, people use to trust people.
This is how the story begins, of two boys, of same age but two generations apart. Next day Esh decided to accompany Purshottam to his college, never in his life could Esh have ever dreamt of waking up at 04:30 in the morning, taking bath, going to the Temple first and leave for college (Purshottam’s) by 06:00, Esh used to sleep on some nights at 0600. First a walk for 4KM, then take a Tonga up to the college for another 5KM. By the time they reached college, Esh was exhausted and couldn’t do anything so he decided to rest under a banyan tree, the sweetest and soundest nap he had ever took in the intoxicating breeze.
One after another, the events of a day in India of 1930s are just like another galaxy for Esh. While returning they see a very cute faced old lady in front of the railways station. She tried drinking water from a public well and was trashed and shoved away because she was from a lower caste as was explained by Purshottam to Esh. This was a shocker for Esh as he had come from 2015 where these things social evils were present but not in such blown up proportions. They go up to the lady and buy her food and water. But some part of Esh’s conscience was changed by that event and some part remained in that moment as they left.
A few days go by, somedays Esh would tag along with Purshottam to his college but he would have nothing to do and so Purshottam persuaded Esh to take admission in his college.
On his first day a teacher entered the classroom, dressed in a dhoti and a coat he looked like an old seasoned man. The teacher began his lecture by writing a number 35 on the black board. Then he asked the students in class as to what that number might refer to, after some moments of silence he answered that this is the population of India in Crs, and Esh was like whaaaat, we are now 135Crs in 2015. Beneath it the teacher wrote another number which he explained represented the number of people who do not eat at night and sleep hungry in India, beneath it the teacher wrote another number representing the number of children who sleep hungry, beneath it another number which represented the children who never went to school, beneath it was another number representing the number children who did not go to college and finally he wrote a number representing number of children who are lucky to have food and are in college to study.
What he meant was for them to realize that they are privileged and that they should respect it and it’s their duty to do something for other under privileged children who are sleep on empty stomach after they have become learned individuals. This was a lecture on social science. The teacher goes on to say that a day will come sooner or later when the British will go away, and then it will be the responsibility of you the students in front of him to make India shine and do remarkable reforms in the social and economic arena. The teacher then went on to say that independent India should be a rich country not only in terms of money but in terms of intelligence, heritage, culture, resources and definitely peace.
The independence should be equal for everybody, for slaves, for lower caste people for laborers, for everyone must have the right to live freely. People of all religion must be treated as equal and there should be no discrimination on the basis of Caste, religion, race. These evils should not have any place in the independent India and it is the duty of the future generation, the students, to ensure that such an India is crafted. For the first time ESh has thought about something and it had touched him. It quickly reminded him so that cute old lady who was denied drinking water.
A slightly new Esh whiles returning home that day along with Purshottam saw a procession march against the British, they came to know that this is against the salt tax which the British had brought in. They saw people peacefully raising slogans and marching and then suddenly just few meters from them, there was a lathi charge and Esh was shocked to see that, after all they enjoy democratic freedom in 2015.
That night Esh hardly slept as he was taken aback by the happenings of the day, caste based discrimination, poverty, no freedom of speech. He used to argue with his father when he was asked questions about spending his pocket money.
Next day another teacher came to take the class. The teacher began with a simple question “who all have seen magic”. In 1930 almost all the students raised their hands in answer to the teacher’s question. The teacher then went on to say that you all are fools. You all have been fooled by none other than your own brain. Whatever your brain doesn’t understand it terms it as magic or faith, stop being a fool and start questioning, this is a science class and here we learn by questioning. Esh was already impressed by this teacher whom he had laughed off because of the dress he was wearing.
So who all know about radio, asked the teacher and some students again raised their hands and so does Esh & Purshottam. Suppose I tell you that one day you will be able to see what is happening in Delhi. Suppose you are able to see the person who is reading the news. Esh could make out that he is talking about television which had not been invented then. That day will come, said the teacher and Esh was like yeah, come and gone, after all he was from the age of LED
One night after dinner, Purshottam shares with Esh that how he wants to start a shoe business and supply shoes to Britishers, made in India. He is encouraged by Esh to go ahead with his shoe business plan, he laughs inside as he knows that his business is going to grow leaps and bounds and he is going to be a very rich man.
That night to showcase his talent, Purshottan makes a lovely leather shoe for Esh with leather he has hidden from his parents. Esh was really amazed to see his grandfather’s talent and now he knows and reason behind his successful family business.
Next day they both skip college and go to the bank of Ganges to discuss the business plan. Purshottam tells Esh that he wants to make shoes which Britishers and Indians will wear. But there are problems, like his father who will never allow his son to enter into a leather business due to the big religious divide. Purshottam tells Esh that he learnt shoe making from a Muslim cobbler who use to sit near his school Esh is now aware of the caste based and religion based divide in India, he understands that if Purshottam tells his father about this and making leather shoes he will be disowned and beaten.
Esh comes up with a plan, they first decide to make business plan, put everything in place and then tell the parents in the last. They start with a British govt registrar office to find out how to start business in British India? For the first time, Esh was about to come face to face with the British and all the sayings about independence struggle were to be proved right in front of him.
After a disappointing visit to registrar office, they decided to take help, they first visit the teacher who gave them a lecture on social science. They share their plan with him and asked for his help, the teacher first wanted to test their resolve so he asked them to go back and focus on studies. To test their resolve he insults them, he comments that we Indians can only think of shoes, we will always be under the British Feet. Hearing this, their blood boils, Esh replies to the teacher to think of it in this way that one day any dress will be incomplete without an India Shoe. Foreigners will go out only after wearing an India shoe, everyone will reach to their destination wearing an India shoe, world will take every step wearing an India shoe. The teacher, convinced with the resolve, decides to help them and asks them to reach the Sales tax office by 0900 tomorrow.
The struggle begins, the British laws were at first the big hindrance and then others. But one by one eventually they overcome all the hurdles, get all the permissions to start the business.
The day came when they about to start their business and first day was tomorrow. But a major thing that was pending, was telling Purshottam’s father about idea. They both decide to tell Purshottam’s father and start by gifting him a brand new pair of shoes made by Purshottam and eventually tell him everything about the shoe business they want to start. He agreed with a promise that they will donate large number of shoes to the army fighting for the independence of their motherland, India.
On his return to the current life, Esh is astonished to find out that it’s only the next day’s morning in 2015, all the time which he had spent in 1930 actually pans over just one night of his current life. Esh started behaving very responsibly, respecting his parents the way Purshottam used to do, valued hard earned money. His father was amazed to see all those changes. Esh then gives a brilliant idea to his father to overcome the losses something he had learnt from Purshottam. Esh decides to touch the watch once again but nothing happens, the objective was achieved, Esh realized it and went up to his Grand Father’s photo and said “hey buddy, you did pretty well.”
–END–
