I am a master in India

Chapter 315 Punishment

Chapter 315 Punishment
Anand and Rajakanu stepped forward, determined to stop them.

Suddenly, the flimsy door slammed open, and Joseph's wife collapsed at their feet.

She was naked, her long hair tangled, messy, and stained with blood. She had been brutally beaten by her husband with a stick, leaving her back, buttocks, and legs covered with blue and red welts.

The crowd recoiled in horror, horrified by both the terrible wounds on her body and her complete nakedness.

Anand was also taken aback. Despite his extramarital affairs, in India at that time, being naked was like a secret religion.

No one would show their naked body to the public except for the mentally unstable or saints.

There are many couples in the slums who have been married for years and have never seen their wives naked.

Everyone felt extremely sorry for Joseph's wife; shame filled everyone's hearts and burned their eyes.

Then a loud shout came from inside the house, and Joseph stumbled out of the door. His cotton trousers were stained with urine, and his T-shirt was torn and filthy.

He was out of his mind, drunk and distorted, his hair disheveled, his face smeared with blood. He was still clutching the stick he used to beat his wife.

As soon as the sunlight hit him, he squinted, his blurry gaze falling on his wife. He cursed at her, took a step forward, and was about to raise the stick to hit her again.

Everyone gasped, recovering from their shock, and prepared to step forward to stop them.

But someone was the first to rush forward—it was the short, stout Anand!
He gritted his teeth as he wrestled with the much larger Dos Joseph and pushed him backward.

Joseph's stick was taken from his hand, and he was pinned to the ground. He struggled and screamed, a string of vicious curses mixed with saliva coming from his mouth.

Several weeping women stepped forward, as if mourning the dead. They covered Joseph's wife's body with a yellow sari and carried her away.

The crowd punched and kicked Joseph, and Anand slapped him a few times in return. But just as they were about to turn into a mob resorting to vigilante justice, Anand immediately raised his hand to stop them and take control of the situation.

He ordered the crowd to disperse or retreat, and the men who were holding Joseph down pressed him to the ground.

He didn't intend to call the police or take Joseph away; instead, he wanted to find out what Joseph had drunk.

The liquor was called Darul, a homemade strong liquor with a very astringent taste.

After the wine was delivered, Anand instructed Rajakanu and Rajiv to force Joseph to drink it.

They seated Joseph in a circle of burly young men and handed him a bottle of wine.

Joseph glared at them angrily, harboring suspicion for a while, then quickly grabbed the bottle and gulped down the liquor for a long time before stopping.

The young men around him patted his back gently, encouraging him to drink more.

He continued drinking the strong-tasting darul, then tried to push the bottle away, saying he had had enough.

The young men's coaxing turned into coercion; they joked with him, put the bottle to his lips, and shoved it into his mouth.

Rajakanu lit a cigarette and handed it to Joseph. He smoked, drank, and smoked again. Holding the blood-stained stick, he staggered out of the house. After a few steps, he lowered his head and collapsed unconscious on the gravel path.

The young men continued to surround him, and Anand ordered tea and water to be prepared. After they had drunk their tea, they began to wake Joseph.

They poked and stabbed him, yelling at him. He shifted his body, muttering something angrily, and didn't wake up for a long time.

He opened his eyes, shook his groggy head, and angrily demanded water.

“We don’t have water, but we have wine.” Anand winked.

They picked up a second bottle of wine and forced him to drink it, using a combination of coaxing and deception, determined to make him drink it.

Someone lit another cigarette for him, and a group of young people smoked with him.

Joseph kept angrily asking for water, but each time he was given strong liquor instead.

Before he had even finished the third bottle, he fainted again, falling to his side with his head hanging at an awkward angle, his face completely exposed to the rising sun, but no one was there to shield him from the sun.

Anand only allowed him to nap for five minutes before having him woken up. Joseph woke up, angrily complaining, and then began to roar and swear.

He tried to climb back into the house, but Anand picked up the blood-stained stick and gave the order: "Begin!"
*Thud!* A heavy blow landed on Joseph's back. Joseph howled and tried to get away, but the young men forming a circle pushed him back to the center of the circle.

Anand slapped him again, and Joseph screamed angrily, but everyone slapped him and yelled at him to be quiet.

Anand raised the stick, and Joseph huddled up, trying to focus his unfocused gaze.

“You bastard, do you know what you’ve done?” Anand asked sternly, then slapped his shoulder with a stick.

"Tell me, you drunk dog! Do you even know what despicable things you've done?"

"Don't hit me!" Joseph screamed. "Why are you hitting me?"

“That’s a question for you to ask yourself.” Anand struck him with the stick again.

"Ouch! I didn't do anything!"

Rajakanu took the stick and hit his arm.

"You filthy pig! You beat your wife, made her walk naked in public, and you almost beat her to death!"

When the stick was in Rajiv's hands, he lashed it hard at Joseph's leg.

"She's dying! You've killed her! You killed your own wife and then humiliated her!"

Joseph tried to shield himself with his arms and looked around frantically for a way to escape, but he was surrounded.

Before the sticks had even stopped, the young men surrounding him each stepped forward to carry out the torture.

Joseph gradually realized the seriousness of the situation, his face stiffened, and he looked frightened and in extreme pain.

“It’s not over!” he cried. “I didn’t do anything! I didn’t mean to kill her! Give me water! I need water!”

“No water!” Anand said.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve hit her with a stick. Now you’re finished. You’ve killed her, so you can’t hit her anymore. You’ll die in jail!”

"You're so big and strong! You're really brave, hitting your wife who's only half your height. Come on, hit me! You shameless scoundrel!" The crowd shouted and cursed, their sticks flying.

Joseph "Water" sobbed, collapsing to the ground in tears of self-pity.

“No water!” Anand stared at him.

Joseph fell into a coma again, but was awakened and exposed to the scorching sun, suffering terribly.

He asked for water, but each time only a wine bottle was brought to his lips. He wanted to refuse, but his thirst was unbearable.

He caught the bottle with trembling hands, but the stick fell on him again. He tried to crawl away, but was twisted back.

Anand told him to go and call Joseph's relatives and friends, as well as his wife's family.

After the relatives and friends arrived, the young men stepped back, and the others surrounded Joseph and continued to torture him.

They cursed and beat him, and Joseph finally broke down, completely losing his will to fight.

His resentment and contempt were overwhelmed, and he cried out his wife's name repeatedly: Maria, Maria, Maria.
The punishment only ended at this point. His relatives and friends brought him water and soap, and helped him comb his hair and wash his face.

Then they comforted him with a hug and the kind words they had heard for the first time since his punishment, telling him that if he truly repented, they would forgive him and help him.

They called many people forward so he could touch their feet. Then they changed him into a clean shirt and supported him with their arms and shoulders.

“Your wife Maria is not dead,” Anand said softly.

"Not dead?" Joseph said in a low, indistinct voice.

"Yes, she was badly injured, but she didn't die."

"Thank God, thank God."

"The women in your family and Maria's family have already decided what to do. Do you regret it?"

“Yes, Anandbay,” Joseph wept, “I regret it so much.”

“Those women decided you're not allowed to see Maria for two months. She's badly injured and needs rest. You almost killed her. During this time, you have to work hard and save money.”

Aside from water, you cannot drink darulana, beer, or any other beverages—not even a drop, understand?

"Yes, I will do so."

"Two months later, go and beg Maria for forgiveness yourself. If she doesn't want you, you mustn't bother her. If she accepts you, use the money you've saved to take her on a cool mountain vacation. Let her meditate in a quiet place and reflect on herself."

"Yes, I will definitely do so."

Joseph was helped away and lay in the hut, where two friends fanned his unconscious body with cardboard.

Rajakanu tied one end of the bloodstained stick with a thin rope and then hung it on a bamboo pole outside Joseph's house as a warning.

During the two months he's being punished, the scoundrel will be hanging there.

The crowd gradually dispersed; some went home, and some went to work.

In one of the small houses, someone turned on the radio, and plaintive Hindi love songs echoed through the alleys and ditches of the bustling slum.

Several chickens were pecking at the spot where the crowd had just tormented Joseph. Elsewhere, women were laughing and children were playing.

A vendor selling bracelets sang a sales song in Marathi: "Beautiful bracelets, beautiful bracelets!"

The slums have returned to their normal rhythm of life, and fishermen are returning home from the docks, carrying baskets full of their catch, which smell of the sea.

Incense vendors also began to operate, going from street to street, burning sandalwood, jasmine, and rose incense to attract customers.

Ron, sitting in his car on the roadside not far away, witnessed everything.

After finishing up there, Anand came running over excitedly.

“Ron Baba!” He looked very happy.

"Well done."

"I learned all of that in prison."

“Fool,” Ron chuckled, “there’s no such thing as winning people over in prison.”

“Alibaba used to teach people this lesson in the slums of South Mumbai.”

"Very good, from now on, the Karma compound will be in your hands."

“I guarantee there won’t be any problems.” Anand shook his head; he enjoyed this kind of work.

You can't put him in an office. The chaotic yet vibrant slums are his Eden.

"I'm leaving." Ron waved his hand.