It was a phone call that Tony had never expected.

Tony lived in the remote fringes of the country, in a village called Shella in the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border. He taught at St Edmund's Senior Secondary School there.  Father Lawrence de Mendez had offered him the job as an English teacher in the senior secondary section as soon as he had completed his post-graduation from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. It was difficult to get qualified teachers in the remote areas of the state, and Tony had imagined that as the reason for his appointment without such formalities as the interview.

Later on he came to suspect that through his appointment Father Lawrence was trying to curry favour with the Provincial, Father Varghese.  Father Lawrence was not quite happy with his posting in what he called "the end of the world."  He wanted a transfer to some place that was "in contact with civilisation." 

Tony was a nephew of Father Varghese and the latter was a little worried about the young man's "character development."

"Something's not quite all right with Tony," Father Varghese confided in Father Lawrence during one of his rare visits to Shella.  "He is very immature, childishly egotistic, and very moody too.  I think he'll be a failure in any profession.  He will not even survive in a proper town, forget about cities." 

Father Varghese thought that Tony was not cultured enough for civilised societies.  A part of his being, "a major part, I should say," was still untouched by any sense of refinement.  "Maybe, he will fit in a remote village like this," concluded Father Varghese. 

Father Lawrence thought, or appeared to think, for a while and said, "There's a vacancy for an English teacher here in our school.  But there's also a local candidate available.  I can overlook the local candidate if you desire so."

What he said about the local candidate was not entirely true.  It was not entirely false either.  There was a girl from the village who had just post-graduated along with Tony.  But she was not interested in teaching in a school, that too in "a god-forsaken village."

Tony was not aware of all this.  He was merely given to understand that a job was available if he was "genuinely interested." 

He was not sure whether he was genuinely interested.  He knew that he was not interested in studying any further and hence a job was the next natural thing to do.  And a job was being offered to him on a platter.  The place really didn't matter. "One hell is as good as any other" must have been what Tony thought.

Tony was a greater success as a teacher than what Father Lawrence or Father Varghese had bargained for.  The students enjoyed his frolicsome ways (which the Fathers, obviously, regarded "clownish"). Tony he was a failure "as a human being," according to both the Fathers. 

Father Lawrence thought Tony was sub-human, "more like an animal than a man."

"He lives by his instincts," thought Father Lawrence.  "No thoughts about tomorrow, no thoughts about what's beyond here and now.  That's how animals live."

Tony's life in Shella acquired a routine, however.  As soon as he got his salary in the beginning of the month he would catch the single bus from the village to Shillong and return in the evening by the same bus, a few bottles of whisky and a few books in his bag. When the whisky was exhausted in the course of the month, Tony would would take recourse to khiat, a local brew.  A similar kind of pattern emerged in his eating habit too.  The month would begin with dohsiar, chicken, and end with dohjem, the cheapest non-vegetarian dish, in the tiny eatery of the village.

Father Lawrence, like most Fathers of the Church, possessed the quality of omniscience in matters related to his proteges (or victims, as the case sometimes would be).  And omniscience comes with a great responsibility: 'the burden of the omniscient', you might say, the burden of having to set matters right.  Father Lawrence religiously took upon himself the burden of reforming the brute in the imperiled soul of this God's creation called Tony. And he got the sanction for his missionary zeal from his Provincial. 

Father Lawrence counselled Tony in the subtlest ways possible.  The intelligent do not respond positively to overt counselling, Father Lawrence knew. (Of course, Father Lawrence thought Tony to be intelligent.) When his overtures failed to achieve any palpable change in Tony's character, Father Lawrence sought external help.  Father Cyriac from Cherrapunjee parish was brought to Shella to deliver a fiery sermon on the seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Father Lawrence was quite certain that Tony possessed most of these deadly evils which slowly but surely drag one's soul to eternal damnation.  He had tested Tony in many ways to find out the magnitude of his soul's degradation.  For example, wrath.  Tony was quite short-tempered.  Or greed.  Wasn't it sheer greed for alcohol that drove him to Shillong every month and later to the local brewery? Gluttony was concomitant with that greed.  (To be fair to Tony it should be said that he really didn't eat like a glutton. He ate whatever was available and what his wallet could afford.) His refusal to attend the church on Sundays along with the other faithful was traced to his pride.  And envy?  Tony's refusal to admire the goodness in others and his deep-rooted cynicism were the evidence of his envy.  The only deadly sin that he was yet to fall into was lust.  Father Lawrence had tested Tony on that score too.  He had asked a few "reliable" young girls of the village to seduce Tony.  They didn't succeed, however. Father Lawrence ascribed that to an infantile narcissism because of which Tony couldn't escape his own inflated ego. "Oh, my God!" sighed Father Lawrence, "what a Herculean task have I taken upon myself!"

Tony's perception of the whole matter, however, was quite simple.  He thought that Father Lawrence 'Demented' was on a Father Var-goose chase.  So he joined the game in a spirit of frolic sometimes.  For example, when he was asked to attend the Sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins, he did attend.  When he was asked to make his confession to Father Cyriac, he agreed.  Father Cyriac didn't seem quite satisfied with Tony's confession, though.  He let out a profound sigh when Tony had finished enumerating his sins and answered in the affirmative to the question: "Is that all?"

Close on the heels of Father's Cyriac's profound sigh came the message from Father Lawrence that Tony had a phone call.

Tony was surprised.  No one had ever phoned him during the one year he had spent in Shella. 

The call was from his home in Kerala. 

Tony's eldest brother, Mark, had suffered a severe stroke. There was internal bleeding in the head. The doctors succeeded in removing the clot but Mark was in coma.  Nothing could be said definitively about his condition.  Tony was asked to rush home. 

It was the end of the month.  Tony's wallet had already witnessed khiat and dohjem. Father Lawrence gave him an advance from the next salary and Tony started the long and tedious journey from Shella to Shillong to Guwahati to Ernakulam to Paramedu. 

As the Guwahati-Thiruvananthapuram Superfast train dragged itself sluggishly across the breast of the vast country called India, Tony remembered his brother Mark's achievements in the short period of his life. 

Mark had failed in class 7 three times before he decided to bid goodbye to school.  He then joined a timber dealer as an assistant.  Soon he became a timber dealer himself.  In a few years' time Mark went on to become a successful real estate dealer.  He soon became the owner of a few noted rubber estates. Then he expanded his business to the construction sector.  His first major construction, a gargantuan multiplex, was under way when the stroke put a brake on his apparently relentless forward march. 

When Tony reached the hospital Mark was still in coma.  The conqueror was now lying helplessly in his bed, a lot of life-supporting equipments attached to his body. 

Tony went out of the room to the balcony.  At some distance he could see a whole vast area of lush green vegetation in this God's Own Country being marauded by huge bulldozers.  The hoarding said: 'Welcome to Eden Apartments - Your Ultimate Paradise on Earth.'

Tony looked beyond.  His eyes were searching for the signboard of a bar, his ultimate paradise on earth.