1 The Best Day of My Life THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE was the day I found out I was all alone in the world This is how it happened I was picking up coal No I was supposed to be picking up coal but I wasn’t I was tired of picking up coal I was tired of coal Being tired of coal in Jharia is no good because coal is all there is in Jharia There is coal in pits and coal in piles and coal in mines under the ground There is coal on the roads and coal in people’s hair and coal in people’s chests that makes them cough and cough There is even coal in the air It comes up through cracks in the earth from the coal fires that have been burning under the town for nearly one hundred years If you’re a man you work in the mines or the pits
with large heavy baskets of coal on your head If you’re a child you run around and pick up any stray lumps of coal you can find If the bosses see you doing this they’ll chase you and they’ll hit you if they catch you So you have to move fast On this very happy day I was supposed to be picking up coal I had my coal bag over my shoulder There was a bit of coal in it but not very much Instead of running around the coal fields I was trying to convince the shopkeeper that I had a coin in my hand Let me see it said Mr Bannerjee He sat in his chair and flicked his horsetail fly swatter around hacking at the coal with pickaxes and shovels If you’re a woman you walk up the narrow steep trails Oh it’s right here I said holding up my clenched fist What is it Twenty paisas Ten You can buy one sweet maybe two Choose and then pay and go I stretched out the moment before I replied Mr Bannerjee had a tiny television set in his shop on a shelf next to the jars of skin-whitening cream The picture it showed was fizzy and it jumped up and down but I could still see the Bollywood dancers I waved my head the way the dancers did trying to remember the steps to try later Choose Then pay and go he repeated Mr Bannerjee’s shop was made of scrap wood and old cardboard boxes and it was completely open on one side
He slept in it at night to keep thieves away But he didn’t want anyone watching his TV unless they were customers What did you say You heard what I said Mr Bannerjee waved his fly swatter in bigger circles but I wasn’t worried He didn’t like to leave his chair It was a bit of a game I played sometimes seeing how long I could watch his television before he chased me away He knew I didn’t really have any money I never had any money I managed to stay a few moments longer Then the TV went to full fizz and there was no point in hanging around I wandered down to the railway tracks picking up bits of coal when I saw them but not putting any effort into looking Piles of trash lined the tracks Ragpickers and goats poked through it I stayed away from the bigger piles of garbage I didn’t into an argument and ragpickers like getting feel sometimes guarded their territory I kept my eyes on my feet and shuffled garbage around with my toes I wished I was a goat Goats ate everything If I was a goat I would never be hungry Hey there’s Valli Valli come and throw rocks with us or we’ll throw rocks at you I looked up Some of my cousins were out on the tracks
